Memory Jar
by SkyEel
Summary: In her long life, Marceline has forgotten many things. But when she suddenly loses all memory of Bonnibel Bubblegum, the princess along with Finn and Jake set out to help her recover what was lost. Time is short, but no amount of wizards, space aliens, or nefarious artifacts will stand in their way. Bubbline
1. Chapter 1

The princess of the Candy Kingdom strolled into Marceline's cave in early evening. Her water-walking boots, with wide flexible cups on the soles, made rhythmic splashes as she jauntily stepped across the flooded cave to the island beyond. The setting sun, barely visible through the mouth of the cave, dyed the waters red and gold, and she imagined herself sliding through an oil slick or perhaps a painter's palette.

To say that Bonnie was in a good mood would be an understatement. Her recent experiment had concluded successfully, her candy people had managed to go a whole week without blowing themselves up or running into another crisis, and as a result she was for once able to keep her plans Marceline.

She swung the picnic basket in her hand to and fro. A variety of delicious smells emanated from within. There was fruit salad with strawberries, raspberries, pomegranate seeds, and tomatoes. Peppermint Butler had given her a strange look as she prepared, perhaps not used to seeing her in the kitchen.

Also nestled within were a bottle sweet pink wine, spaghetti with marinara sauce, and a side dish of hard candy naturally. You can't have a balanced meal without candy.

She strode across the lawn, retracting the wide cups on her boots with the press of a button, and knocked on the door.

While she waited, a song sprang to mind and she sung quietly to herself. _Hooked on a feeling. I'm high on believing…_

The door swung open to reveal a floating Marceline. The gray-skinned girl was wearing torn blue jeans and a t-shirt showing various shapes with faces drowning in a sea of red. She was a bit underdressed for their outing compared to Bonnie, but it felt natural. Marceline always defied social etiquette.

"Hi there," Bonnie clasped the basket in front of her and smiled up.

"Uh, hi," The vampire blinked and looked her up and down. "Sorry but I don't do autographs outside of shows."

Bonnie snorted. "I don't think I need an autograph. I have enough of your stuff cluttering up my bedroom already. But if you want to leave your mark somewhere else later…" She felt her face heating at her own boldness. Glob, she was sounding like Marceline these days.

"Wow, you don't mess around, do you? Skipping right ahead to the end." Her lopsided smile was halfway been amused and incredulous. "And I assume that's supposed to be a bribe?" She pointed to the basket in the other girl's hands.

"Well, it's a little early for our picnic, but I thought maybe we could watch a movie first," she said, brushing by Marceline to enter the house.

A grey arm shot out and blocked her way like an iron bar.

"Woah, woah. It's nice that you've got all these plans in your head, Pinky, but keep me out of it."

Bonnie turned to her, confused. Marceline hadn't called her 'Pinky' in years, and she knew she hated that name.

"Thanks for being a fan and all, but if you want to see me, go to one of my shows." Marceline unceremoniously slammed the door in her face.

Bonnie stood there with her mouth hanging open for a moment. What exactly had just happened?

She grabbed the handle, and finding it unlocked, opened the door.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked, stepping into the room.

The vampire, who was now halfway across the room, whirled around, her red eyes blazing. She hissed, not in the cute, taunting way she sometimes did, but in a feral 'you're in danger' kind of way.

"What is wrong with you? Get out of my house, you psycho!"

"What's wrong with me? You're the one who's acting…" She bit her tongue to stop herself from devolving this into a shouting match. She had been looking forward to this evening for too long to let it be ruined.

Tamping down on the worry and irritation growing inside her, she asked in a calm voice, "I'm serious, Marceline. Is this a prank or are you mad at me? Please just talk to me."

"Talk to you? I don't even know who you are!"

She flew over and shoved Bonnie outside by the shoulders. The princess's heel caught on the doorframe and she tumbled backwards, landing on her back in the grass. The basket fell alongside her and threw its contents across the lawn. The fruit salad splattered the doorstep like a red bloodstain. The spaghetti sauce splashed over her skirt and sweater. And the loud shattering of the wine bottle was followed by silence.

She rolled over and rose unsteadily to her knees, surveying the wreckage of her hopes and plans. She kept her head bowed, not wanting to see the incomprehensible anger likely showing on Marceline's face or to let her see the tears forming in her eyes.

Without a word, the vampire flew away.

* * *

Why should she have to feel like garbage? Marceline fumed as she floated in the sky.

The last rays of evening light scalded her skin, but that was a familiar pain, a comforting one, compared to the guilt roiling within her.

Some strange chick she had never seen before showed up at her doorstep, acting like they were a couple. Of course she would throw her out. It was perfectly reasonable.

But the sight of her shoulders shaking—in sadness or maybe fear—as she knelt on the ground had sent a spike through her gut.

Now she was stuck out here feeling too conflicted to go back, and she didn't even have her bass to pass the time. Hopefully in an hour or so the woman would be gone from the cave, and she could return home.

It was a shame really. The girl had been cute as hell in an old-fashioned, wholesome kind of way. She wore a downy white sweater and a knee-length pink skirt. Her vibrant pink hair was pushed back over one ear and fell in a smooth cascade down to the small of her back. And her smile when she had first opened the door had been killer. Honestly, the sight had made her want to eat the girl right up.

Unfortunately, she had ended up being crazy.

The hour passed absurdly slowly for an immortal. Normally, she could pass a day in the blink of an eye, but now time seemed to stretch interminably. She hummed tunes. She searched the sky for constellations. She held her thumb and forefinger up to her eye and pretended to squish buildings down below like ants.

But mostly she ended up thinking about the pink-haired girl. Somehow the story of her being a crazed stalker didn't quite fit. Her actions had seemed a little too sincere.

She heaved a sigh and put it out of mind as she flew back to her cave. The girl would be long gone by now, and she'd never have to see her again. Just to be safe though, she turned invisible as she approached her home.

All signs of the mess from earlier were gone. The doorstep was damp as though someone had rinsed it off. The noodles and shards of glass had been picked clean from the grass. Passing by the window, she did a double take. Pink was still there sitting on her couch!

What in the ninety seven dead worlds did this girl think she was doing?

She flew up to her second story window, feeling both alarmed and intrigued, and slipped inside. Floating silently down the stairs, she entered her living room and stopped a dozen feet away from the other woman to study her.

She wore a gold circlet inlaid with a blue gem perched on her head. Somehow she had missed that detail in flurry of their altercation earlier. Was she some kind of royalty, one of the princesses that were ubiquitous to Ooo? Going by her unique hair and the sweet scent coming off her, she'd be from the Candy Kingdom.

But Marceline definitely knew all of the princesses. She had to attend that dumb Princess Day each year, so she had met everyone plenty of times. Mentally going through each of the kingdoms, she could picture the name and face of each monarch, but the princess of the Candy Kingdom remained a void in her mind.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the possible-princess rising and peering out the window, perhaps searching for Marceline herself. Finding nothing, she sank back down on the couch and appeared to be deep in thought. Her hands were clenched, and her eyes, which had looked at the vampire so brightly before, were now puffy and red.

Marceline grimaced and reflexively floated closer to the girl before stopping herself.

"Enough. We clearly need a third party to sort this out," the pink girl muttered. She pulled a cell phone out of a pocket in her skirt and dialed.

"Finn? Yeah, it's me. Listen, I need you to come over to Marceline's place. We…I think there's something wrong." The voice on the other end replied periodically but was too quiet to hear from across the room.

"No, we're not just fighting again! I think something is seriously messed up with her memory. Just get over here as soon as you can and bring Jake too, please."

She began to end the call but added, "And bring some pillows too. This couch is flipping uncomfortable."

Strange. This person was friends with Finn and Jake? Close friends too by the sound of it. But surely they would have mentioned her at some point. Marceline rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on. Maybe it'd be simpler to just reveal herself and have a talk with this stranger.

But before she could come to a decision, the other girl rose and climbed the ladder to her bedroom. Following behind, Marceline saw her rummaging through her closet.

"I think I left some clean clothes over here. Aha!"

She pulled out a dark purple coat with pink buttons and a pair of maroon slacks that Marceline had never seen before. She unbuttoned her skirt, letting it fall and pool around her ankles, and slid the sweater off over her head.

Marceline spun around but not before catching an eyeful of lacy red underwear and a generous expanse of pale pink skin. Marceline felt her face flushing as she floated downstairs. She certainly hadn't expected the girl to be so, uh, well-proportioned under that loose sweater.

Turning visible again before she became any more a voyeur, the vampire settled down to wait for the princess's return.

* * *

Once Finn and Jake had arrived, the princess—Bonnibel Bubblegum apparently—had explained her theory: somehow Marceline had forgotten her existence while the rest of her memories remained intact.

"Do you remember Finn's 17th birthday?" Bonnibel asked. She sat in between Finn and Jake on the couch, on cushions now, while Marceline floated across from them.

"Yeah, there were all these party games set up in the...Candy Kingdom castle."

Logically the princess would be in her own castle, but even after going over the memory in detail, Marceline couldn't recall her being there.

"Anyways, all of Finn's friend were there, and by that I mean three of us and a whole bunch of banana guards."

"Hey, that wasn't my idea!" Finn interjected.

"Uh huh," she smiled at him. "Then later, Finn almost got decapitated by some green dude with an axe. Oh and at the end, when Simon burst out the cake dressed as Flame Princess…! Ah, good times."

"Yes, I enjoy being emotionally traumatized," Finn spoke in a deadpan tone. "But what about Peebs being there?"

"Peebs?" She looked over to the princess. "Uh, no, not that I recall."

"What about the part where my family showed up? They were talking directly to me, so how do you remember that?" Bonnibel asked.

"I remember something stopping the green dude, but I don't know what."

The memory just ended there like a jagged rip in a painting, and the more she tried to stitch it back together, the more her headache throbbed. There was something though, like a horse but also people? And she had jumped in front of someone?

It was like grasping at smoke. Each time she tried to force the images to stay in play, they morphed and blew away. A low growl of frustration rumbled in her throat.

"We can stop there. This is probably pretty upsetting for you," Bonnibel said in a gentle voice. She reached out a hand to Marceline but hesitated before touching her and pulled back.

Marceline shrugged and shoved her hands in her jean pockets.

"Nah, it's cool. I don't remember what I forgot, so it's more like an annoyance than anything."

It bugged her, like there were secrets being whispered behind her back, but it wasn't painful. Maybe if she knew what she had forgotten, it'd be different.

"It looks like it's harder on you," she said quietly. The princess seemed downright depressed.

"You believe me?" Bonnibel blinked in surprise.

"Yep."

Despite the absurdity of it, forgetting one single thing and nothing else, her instincts told her it was true. Her memories were messed up, Bonnibel seemed truly upset, and Finn and Jake supported her story. What more did she need?

Assuming that the princess was right all along, Marceline thought back to how she acted earlier in the night.

"Uh, Bonnibel?" She tried out her name. It sounded too formal. Wasn't there something else she could call her? "About earlier, I was a real jerk to you. I'm sorry."

The princess waved it off.

"It was understandable."

"No it wasn't! I ruined your dinner, I'm guessing."

"A picnic, yeah." Bonnibel shrugged. "In the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal."

The princess gave her a weak smile which quickly floundered. Surprisingly, it bothered Marceline to see her upset like this.

"How about you give me a smack? It'll make you feel better," she said with a smile.

"I'm not going to hit you, Marceline." She rolled her eyes.

"Come on, just one." She grabbed Bonnibel's wrist and guided the princess's fist into her cheek.

The princess scoffed, giving a small laugh, and relaxed her hand to cup Marceline's cheek. Her palm was soft, and the warmth seemed to bleed into Marceline's cold skin. A moment later though she pulled back, acting stiff again.

"Sorry. It probably bothers you."

"No, it's…" It honestly didn't bother her, quite the opposite, but Marceline couldn't explain why.

"Uhh, so," Jake interrupted, reminding them of the boys' presence. "You lost your memory of PB then? That's a doozy."

"Yeah, you guys are like best friends," Finn added, looking between them.

Were they? The vibe she had gotten from Bonnibel earlier had been friendly, sure, but also something else. Since no one seemed in a hurry to tell her, maybe she would just find out for herself.

With a wide smile, she looked in Bonnibel's eyes and placed a hand on the princess's knee.

"Best friends, huh? Earlier this evening, was that normally how you greet your friends, Bonnibel?"

"Ah, well…" Her checks turned red, but the vampire noticed this time she didn't move away. "It's…complicated."

The embarrassment was a good sign. Wait, 'good'? What was she hoping for exactly?

She considered how to tease the truth out of her next, when Jake asked "What's complicated about it? You guys were smoochin, right?"

"Wait, you knew?" Bonnibel's head whipped towards him, her flush deepening.

"Nope, but now we do! Right, bro?" He leaned around her to fist-bump Finn, but the kid just stared at them slack jawed.

"You are?! I had no idea! Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Because apparently it was a secret," Marceline said, fighting back the smile that had inadvertently formed on her face.

Why was she feeling elated over being in a relationship with someone she just met? But technically they had known each other a long time. Ah, this was all so confusing.

"Okay, you say it's complicated. Could you explain it to me?" She asked the princess.

"Sure, let me just summarize a couple hundred years in a few words," she smiled helplessly. "Where to even begin? We've known each other a long time, Marceline. We've been a lot of things, but one thing we were never particularly good at was talking."

Her eyes took on a faraway look. "Sometimes we were close. We'd be friends or allies at the very least. No one else lived as long, so it's like we were bound together. But also sometimes decades would go by where we were apart, where I was convinced you hated me, and I probably did the same to you." She grimaced at that.

"About a year ago we became something else, but I don't know what you thought it was. We never put it into words. Sometimes I thought, were you just messing around with me as long as it was fun, and then you'd disappear again?" She clenched her hands until her knuckles were white.

"Or were you actually…" She couldn't finish the thought. "But I guess it doesn't really matter now, does it? All that's gone."

Marceline felt her heart clench and saw Jake silently gesturing between her and the hunched over form of Bubblegum. Hesitantly she put a hand on the girl's shoulder, feeling weird about comforting someone in front of her friends.

She was never any good at being gentle, so instead she put her in a headlock and rubbed her knuckles back and forth on the top of her head until she pulled away with a squawk. The princess, hair in disarray, sat up with a look of utmost confusion.

"So what?" She declared boldly. "So what if my memories are gone? This is Ooo. We just have to go find them. And even if we can't, whatever! It sounds like a lot of the memories I gave you in the past were complete crap anyways. We'll just make new, better ones."

She chuckled at Bonnibel's surprised look.

"Oh yeah, it's like that time when Ash stole your memories of him," said Finn. "We just gotta go beat him up and get them back."

"He was probably all jelly of Peebs and Marcy being together," Jake added.

"But, how would even know about them?" said Finn.

The two boys broke off in a discussion about how likely it was for Ash to be the culprit based on him being a wizard and all. That left Bonnibel and her alone.

"You're right," said Bonnibel, clapping her cheeks. "This is just another problem where need to work towards a solution. The first step is to put together a list of possible suspects and scenarios."

The princess's eyes and voice were as clear and strong as when Marceline had first seen her.

"Ash is an obvious consideration, but there are other possibilities. Mnemonoid can consume memories, and maybe someone else could have used magic to steal your memory cores. I'll need to go back to the castle to do research. How long are cores stable outside of a person? Do they radiate any detectable energy?"

This other side of the princess showed Marceline just how much she didn't know about the girl. It was a little disheartening, to know that she had lost something, but it was also exciting to think of how much more she could get back.

Perhaps sensing her unease, Bonnibel looked up with a steadfast gaze.

"I promise I'll do everything I can to help you."

Marceline smiled back.

"I trust you."

She genuinely did.

With a plan in place, everyone agreed to head home for the night and meet again tomorrow. She held the door as they filed past, each one giving her a reassuring smile or a pat on the back and telling her they'd get her memories back in no time.

As they headed for the gate, she heard Jake whisper to the princess.

"So, what tier did you get to? She let you her feel her horn yet? Or wait, maybe you found her hidden eighth color?!"

"Jake," the princess sighed. "You really need to find a system that applies to non-rainicorns."


	2. Chapter 2

Marceline flew up to Ash's pad at a frighteningly early 12 p.m. She had gotten a call from Bonnibel—or maybe it should be 'Bonnie' as it was listed in her phone—saying that Finn and Jake had tracked down Ash and there was no time to lose. Apparently the wizard had been absent at the time, but the imp that lived in his outhouse-thing said he still resided there.

Her friends were already there waiting for her, hidden in a copse of trees a good distance from the house. She landed in between Finn and Jake and greeted them both with a high five. The princess she wasn't so sure how deal with.

She settled on being flippant.

"Hey, princess! I'm digging the purple eyeliner," she said, looking at the bags under the princess's sleepless eyes.

"How droll," she replied dryly. "I see you're sporting some too. Or does that just come with your normal goth vampire look?"

"What can I say? I had a lot to think about last night," she shrugged. "Plus someone work me up awful early today. Couldn't wait to see me?"

"Hardly," she said, but the smile on her face said otherwise. "As much as I'd love to let you have your beauty sleep, our time may be limited."

She added in a small voice, "And some of us were up all night working for you, you know?"

"I know. Thanks," she said, feeling a small warmth in her chest at how sweet Bonnibel—Bonnie—was.

"So what's the status?" she said turning to the group.

"We saw Ash go in just a little while ago," said Finn. "So what's the plan? We jump him, steal his magic powder, and skedaddle?"

"We also need to know if he's responsible for stealing Marceline's memories," the princess replied. "He may have hidden them somewhere, so 'jumping him' should be a last resort. Let's talk about this like civilized adults first."

"You got it, princess," said Marceline as she floated forwards into the clearing.

"Hey Ash, you butt! Get out here!" she shouted.

She could hear Bonnie face-palming behind her, but honestly being nice to Ash would have made him far more suspicious. It irked her a bit how well she knew the man and how well she remembered this place. If she was going to forget something, why couldn't it be this?

After a few moments, the door opened and out came a lanky, gray-skinned man with a single tail of white hair hanging over the center of his head and down over his face. His eyes widened for a moment and then he broke into a wide toothy grin.

"Marceline! What a pleasant surprise to see you, babe. I had heard some guys were snooping around my place, but I never expected it'd be you."

From behind his back he pulled out the pint-sized imp and held it squirming in one hand.

"You let toilet-imp go, you monster!" Jake shouted.

"Oh, and you brought a dog. You know I don't allow pets in Casa de la Ash, Marcy. I suppose you never were very smart though."

Marceline winced, remembering a time she had believed that about herself. There was a time where she thought taunting words like that were the only affection she could get.

The princess stepped up beside her and squeezed her shoulder, and she relaxed under the other girl's touch.

"You dated this weenus?" said Bonnie quietly.

"It was at a bad time in my life, okay?" There was no real other way to explain it.

The princess fixed Ash with a stern look and spoke loudly across the clearing. "Listen, Ash, we're just here for some info. Where were you two nights ago?"

"I don't see why I should tell you. What do I get out of it?"

"In exchange for answering our questions and giving us some of your magic sleep powder, I'll give you this." She pulled a large sack out of her backpack and threw it on the ground between them. Out spilled glittering gold and jewels.

Ash eyed it hungrily for a moment but then shook his head.

"Please, I'm a wizard. What do I need money for when I can just take what I want?" He scoffed. "I have a better idea. Why don't you beg me on hour hands and knees? Or better yet, why don't you spend the night with me? I've never had a princess before."

"Okay, now let's kill him," Finn said, and Marceline agreed with a hiss. She lunged forward a step until a pink hand grabbed her arm to restrain her.

"Trust me," the princess whispered and then walked over in front of Ash.

"I'll agree to your terms as long as you give us the info and the powder first."

"What? Bonnie!" Marceline shouted.

"Boo! Boo to that idea!" Jake added.

Bonnie silenced them with a look and then turned back to Ash.

"Deal?" She extended her hand.

Ash seemed surprised, but then he looked her up and down with a sleazy grin and shook her hand.

"Sure thing, babe."

He reached his other arm around her waist to forcefully pull her in close. She braced a hand against his chest to keep some distance between them. The sight made Marceline's blood heat up, and her fangs pierced into her lower lip.

"The information first, please. Did you interact with Marceline in any way two nights ago?"

"Nope, haven't seen the chick in years." He didn't seem particularly interested in her questions as his eyes roamed over her body.

"And you do you know anything about her memory being manipulated recently?"

He blinked and looked over at Marceline before breaking out in laughter.

"Wait someone was messing with her head again? Damn, girl, you need a lock on that thing. You didn't many marbles to start with!"

Bonnie pushed him away fully and spoke in a deadpan tone, "Did you steal her memories or do you know anyone who might have done so?"

"Uh, wasn't me. But hey, it could be anyone as long as they had the powder."

"And who else might have it?"

"I trade it to Wizard City every once in a while, but I don't know who exactly gets it. Chill." He seemed off put by her intensity.

"Anyone? Wonderful," she grumbled. "And the powder?" She held out a hand.

"Right here, babe."

He pulled a small pouch off his belt and handed it to her.

"Now why don't we come inside?" He moved to her side and reached an arm around her shoulders to guide her into the cabin.

"Of course, I always keep my promises. But first I'll need to have my research equipment moved here. Even if I'm spending the night, I'll need to continue my work. Oh, and if you touch me again," she said, pinching his hand and removing it from her back, "there will be severe consequences. I promise you that too."

"What? But you said…"

"That I would spend the night. Nothing else." A victorious smile formed on her face.

Marceline flew up to the princess, feeling the tension drain out of her. She had been torn watching the scene play out. On the one hand, there was no way that she was letting Ash do what he wanted, but at the same time, did she even have the right to tell Bonnie what to do?

It worked out though, thank glob. Perhaps if she had had her memories, if she had known Bonnie better, she would have realized it was a clever ploy all along.

She took Bonnie's hand, wondering for a moment if she was being as bad as Ash, but then she felt Bonnie squeeze her hand back.

"Go on and wait for tonight like a good boy." She shooed Ash back towards the house. "I think several of us will be staying here just be safe."

Ash growled in frustration. "You, you liars! You're going to regret messing with me. I knew there was trouble when I heard someone was sneaking about, so I invited a few friends over."

He turned to shout back into the house. "Longshanks! Noodler! Get out here!"

Two men rushed out of the house to stand at his side. One was barely three feet tall with squat arms and legs and a round body. Except for the fact that he had green skin and was wearing clothing, he looked remarkably like Starchy from the Candy Kingdom.

The other was tall and lanky with long, yellow, _noodley_ arms that seemed to flop about instead of having rigid bones. He was dressed in some sort of white and yellow spandex outfit with a picture of elbow macaroni on his chest.

"Gentlemen, these fiends stole from me. Let's show them what happens when they mess with wizards," Ash said as he raised his tree branch wand.

"I'll be the one teaching you a lesson," Marceline said as she squared off in front her old boyfriend. Maybe giving him a pummeling would be good catharsis.

"Uh, we'll get this thing then," Jake said as the Noodler cackled maniacally and flailed his arms about. "Dude stop. It's grossing me out."

That left Bonnie facing Longshanks.

* * *

"Uh, hi. I'm mostly here for moral support," Longshanks said.

"Then give up and get out of here." Bonnie jabbed a finger towards the horizon.

"Yeah, uh, I would like to but I kind of owe Ash a favor. Maybe you could give up?"

"Not in your lifetime, buster."

Bonnie studied the little sea green man, trying to figure out what his power was and which of the devices on her backpack would be most useful in dispatching him. The sooner she resolved this, the sooner she could go assist her friends, who were already locked in action. Marceline and Ash were zipping around at high speed in the air above the cottage. Finn was riding atop a giant-sized Jake, and the two of them were trying to ward off a deluge of penne that came spraying out of the Noodler.

"Oh. Okay. Well, here we go then." Longshanks raised his wand and incanted in a loud voice, "Acto tibia grownum!"

The glow from his wand entered his legs and they began to expand at an alarming rate. They grew taller and wider until his body, which remained the same size, was barely visible in the distance, perhaps a few hundred feet in the air. It looked like a tiny pea on top of tree trunk-like legs.

Well, she certainly wasn't expecting that. She quickly reevaluated her list of inventions and mentally selected a few that might work.

Longshanks seemed to say something, but at that distance it just sounded to Bonnie like a mumble.

"What? I can't hear you," she yelled up.

"What?" Came his louder reply.

"I said, I can't hear you!" she shouted louder.

"Oh! I said I'm going to step on you now!"

"Okay! Got it!" She gave him a thumbs up.

"Wait, what was that?!"

"What was what?!"

"Did you do something with your hand?! I didn't bring my glasses!"

Bonnie put a hand over her eyes and sighed. She hadn't gotten enough sleep to deal with this.

"Forget it! Just get on with it!" she yelled.

The wizard started moving, thank glob. He raised one giant foot and brought it down at her in a ponderous but deadly motion. The shadow of the sole was wide enough to eclipse her whole body, and the rushing of the wind as it descended made a low rumble.

Sprinting to the side, she dove at the last moment out from underneath the boot. The impact from its collision with the ground threw up dirt and leaves in a halo around it. Bonnie rolled to her feet and pulled a rifle with a smooth blue barrel from her backpack. Best to start simple. She slammed a battery pack into its underside and took aim at his shins. She pulled the trigger, and an orb of green energy arced and connected squarely with Longshanks' leg.

And did absolutely nothing. Even his pants were unsinged.

She tossed the gun aside as another foot descended towards her. Again she dove out of the way, and the shockwave bounced her along the ground.

So conventional weapons were out. Could she tie his legs up? The rope of her grappling hook might be long enough, but she wasn't strong enough to loop it around those massive legs and pull it taught.

Maybe it was time for some improvisation. As she ran in front of Longshanks, she cracked open another energy pack with a knife, being careful not to spill the vibrant blue acid within on her hands. She then pulled out her Expand-O-Foam, a small pink cube that would disperse into a fluffy cloud on impact, perfect for cushioning falls.

As the next foot plunged towards her, she dropped the cube into the acid and left the concoction behind her so that it was crushed underfoot. She repeated the procedure, hoping that her mental chemistry was right, and left a second mixture to be crushed as she dodged his other foot.

"You're doing great! One more time, please," she shouted up, waving at him.

She sprinted fifty feet in front of Longshanks, far enough that he would have to take a large stride to reach her. The wizard leaned his body forward to make the large step, however when he went to lift his foot, sticky pink gum glued it to the earth. His other foot, which tried to slide out to catch him, was similarly pinned.

Like a falling tree, Longshanks tilted ever so slowly and then gained momentum until he came crashing down into the forest with a thunderous boom of splintering wood beneath him. Bonnie heard a faint groan as the wizard, still alive, lay still.

Brushing the leaves and dirt from her clothes as best she could, Bonnie looked over to find the other fights similarly done.

Finn and Jake had the Noodler tied up. His own arms were knotted around him like a strait jacket, with one arm passing over his mouth to serve as a gag. Finn was pulling a piece of linguini out of his nose and muttering about not eating pasta for a week. Jake was passed out on the ground, his stomach looking like he had consumed a wheelbarrow's worth of food.

Ash was on the ground as well sporting a black eye and some fresh lumps. Marceline snapped his wand in her fist and leaned over him.

"If you ever touch my friends again," she whispered, "you're dead." She flashed her fangs at him savagely.

The vampire looked up and jumped when she saw Bonnie watching.

"Oh! You're already finished." She flushed as she floated over to Bonnie.

She never noticed before that the tips of the vampire's pointy ears turned a faint color as well. She smiled, thinking of the reaction she'd get if she reached up and grabbed one. The other girl always tried to play it cool, but she was delightfully sensitive in certain ways.

Her smile faded as she came to her senses. Marceline was already confused enough as it was. She shouldn't force her feelings on the girl, especially now that her memories were gone and she didn't feel the same way.

Bonnie just had to hold herself back for a few days. Not a big deal. She had been holding herself back for years. Then they would find Marceline's memories and everything would go back to normal. And if they didn't…if they didn't…

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Marceline gently held her arms and looked over her for injuries. "I wanted to go help you earlier, but Jake said you could take care of yourself, so I just…" She gestured back to Ash.

"I'm fine." She tried to smile reassuringly. "That guy was a piece of cake. There's nothing that science can't overcome."

"Looks like it. I see it also gave you a rad hairdo." Marceline leaned forward and pulled a couple twigs and a whole maple leaf from her hair.

"Please, it's called fashion. Look it up." She took the leaf and suck it back behind her ear like an ornament. Marceline gave her a lopsided grin.

Even if the vampire didn't know it, her reactions and gestures were so familiar. But that familiarity combined with the distance she had to hold herself at made her ache.

"We should get to the castle to proceed with the next step," she said abruptly. "Finn, Jake, you ready?"

"No, I think I'm going to be sick," said Finn, hoisting Jake onto his back.

"Yeah, what he said," Jake mumbled with his eyes still closed.

"Come on, you babies," Bonnie said, patting him on the back. Then unable to resist, she added, "You're stroganoff to deal with this."

The vampire barked a laugh as she took Jake's limp form to help out. "Yeah, what are you alfredof?

"Please, no…" Finn begged.

"Alright, fine. Maybe we should give them a break," Bonnie sighed. "They do seem…shell-shocked."

"You're monsters," Finn said in response to Marceline's laughter. "At least I know you'll run out of puns sooner or later."

"Run out? Impastable!" said Marceline.

Finn groaned as they headed back to the candy castle.


	3. Chapter 3

Marceline pierced her fangs into the tender flesh, drawing out beads of red where her teeth broke the delicate skin. She inhaled and felt the sweet liquid flow down her throat, washing her fatigue away. Now left with a gray, withered husk, she tossed aside the remains, earning her a surly look from Peppermint Butler, who scampered over to pick up the discarded strawberry.

Floating down a hallway of the candy castle, she bit into another piece of fruit from the stash she had filched from the kitchen. For a place that was all about candy, they kept a surprising amount of other foods on hand, many of which were fortunately red. Maybe Bonnie liked non-confectionary foods too.

It felt strange how well Marceline remembered this palace, yet how little she knew of its owner.

Opening the double doors to the throne room, she found only Finn waiting. He was sprawled out sideways on the throne itself, a massive seat made of violet cushions and candy cane stalks.

"You don't think the princess will mind you seizing her throne?" she said, floating over.

He sat up when he saw her but didn't leave his seat.

"Nah, PB doesn't care about things like that." He waved it off. "Although we probably shouldn't let any candy people see. It wouldn't surprise me if they flipped out and thought I usurped the throne."

"Hah! Yeah, I can totally see it. Usurped, though. Looks like someone's been reading the big books."

She patted him on the head on top of his white hoodie until he brushed her hand off with an annoyed look.

"You know I'm seventeen, right?"

"Uh, yeah? I went to your birthday party." She raised an eyebrow at him. "You sure you're not the one with brain damage?"

He gave an exasperated sigh.

"What?" she asked, but he ignored her. His annoyed expression didn't change though.

Well that wouldn't do. Fortunately, Marceline was an expert on getting people to talk whether they wanted to or not. She raised her implements of torture and struck for his ribs and arm pits, tickling him viciously. Finn writhed, trying to fight her off, but he was no match for her superior technique.

"Stop…hah…you win…ah!" he gasped, and she slowed her weapons of terror.

"It's just…you treat me like a kid all the time."

"Uh, yeah?" she asked, not getting what the big deal was.

"But you know I'm an adult, right?"

She started to laugh incredulously, but stopped herself when she saw he was serious.

"Hmm, I wonder." She had to bite down to keep from smiling. "Why do you even want to be an adult?"

Sure, he was as almost tall as she was and probably had to shave in the morning too. But what did that matter?

"I just," he fumbled for a moment, seeming a bit embarrassed. "I thought I had started catching up to you guys, you know, and we'd all be adults together."

It was cute how earnest he looked about this. Marceline leaned down to him and looked him in the eye.

"Finn, let me tell you a secret," she said quietly. His eyes opened wide, and she put her hands on either side of his face.

"I'm not an adult!"

She pinched his cheeks, pulling them out wide, and this time she did laugh at his astonished expression.

"Honestly, of all the things you could be worrying about. What does it even matter? You're good the way you are. Got it?"

Besides, it'd be a shame if his reactions stopped being so amusing.

"Uh, yeah, I think I do." He rubbed his swollen cheeks.

"Great. Now where the heck are Jake and the princess anyways?"

She looked around for the duo that had been conspicuously absent.

"PB said something about using the powder to get a memory core and then finishing up some tracking device. She took Jake because she needed two people, and he already knew how to do it from that time with Ash."

"Yeah, don't remind me," she grumbled.

Still, the princess could've waited a bit and let her help out.

On the journey back from Ash's place, Marceline had thought their banter was going well, but then the princess seemed to sink into thought. Any attempt to engage her was met with only a nod or a couple words at best. Then as soon as they entered to the palace, she pushed Marceline to take a break in the kitchen and disappeared.

Had she done something, or was this just her normal behavior? It was frustrating, not knowing her well enough to understand but still caring what she thought.

"So what are we supposed to do?" she asked.

"Oh, right! She said that while they're busy, we should go talk to Menemone…the mind guy."

Ah, Mnemonoid. They'd had a crazy run in with this alien a few years ago. Memory loss, time travel, and alternate selves were all involved until they finally found something the mind flayer couldn't resist: gossip. The creature fed on stories apparently. Knowing that, there was only one place to go for the biggest source of gossip in Ooo.

"Backpack, princess, or potato?" Marceline asked as they readied to head off.

"What? Potato?" Finn blinked at her.

"Potato it is then!" she said and snapped her fingers.

With a grin, she tossed Finn onto her shoulder so that he was folded over like a sack. She kicked into the air and, with a burst of energy, sped off at high speed. Finn's shouts behind her—surely of joy—were lost to the roaring of the wind whipping around her ears.

* * *

Like a falling comet, Marceline descended towards a plume of smoke rising from the woods below. They had covered the forty or so miles from the Candy Kingdom in just under a half an hour. Not a bad rate for the vampire. It felt good to stretch her proverbial wings every once in a while.

She slowed as she reached the forest floor and set Finn down on his feet.

"There you go, champ!"

He slid bonelessly into a pile on the ground.

"That…" he huffed. "…was awesome!"

He pumped a fist towards the sky, which she grabbed to hoist him to his feet.

"I think I'd prefer to be a backpack next time though," he said.

"Sure, as long as you don't want to be princess carried."

The mental image of cradling Finn made her chuckle. If she was going to do that, it had to be with a proper princess, perhaps someone who was soft and pink.

In the clearing, a small campfire was burning with a tin can open and bubbling above it. Various bric-a-brac from the glen's inhabitant were strewn around the place: dirty takeout containers, posters of bands and male celebrities, and even a little hut made of cardboard boxes and newspapers.

The camp's owner was missing, however, so they settled down on logs by the fire to wait.

Sifting through some of the memorabilia, Marceline found adverts for old bands like the Slime Street Boys, N'Fire, Candyz II Mandyz, and even one of her old groups, Color Me Redd. Ugh, what had she been thinking with those matching outfits.

She considered tossing the thing into the fire but was interrupted by rustling coming from the woods. The sound grew louder until a purple cloud-like blob burst through the tree line, waving two sticks about like a madwoman.

"Get away from my beans! They're all I…oh, it's you guys."

Lumpy Space Princess stopped her frantic defense of legumes when she saw them.

"Finn! Oh my glob, you should have told me you were coming! I'm like not dressed at all."

She patted her various lumps and batted her eyes. Marceline rolled her eyes at the princess who was always naked.

"Hey, LSP," Finn waved. "Uh, you remember that alien guy we introduced you to? Like Memorrhoids or something?"

"Mnemonoid? Oh, totally! He's is like such a great listener. Some guys totally don't get that."

She leaned in close to whisper to Finn, "But like the whole exposed brain thing is just too 'ugh' for my tastes, you know what I mean?"

"Not really. Do you know where he is? We were hoping to talk to him."

"It's super important," Marceline added.

"I'm smelling a story!" LSP bobbed up and down. "Hit me with it, girl. He put a thing in my brain so he can tell whenever I have some juicy stuff to share."

That…didn't seem safe. But whatever, it was LSP's problem.

"I kind of lost all my memories of Bon…of Princess Bubblegum. We think they were stolen with magic somehow, so now we're on a quest to beat up whoever did it and to get them back."

"No. Lumping. Way." LSP looked at her eagerly. A moment later she added. "He's on his way."

* * *

The four of them sat, or floated, on logs around the tiny campfire: a human, a vampire, a purple blob, and a creature with a massive brain in place of a head. Mnemonoid was humanoid in shape and wore a high-collared robe of black and pink around his stick-thin body. His only facial features were two pure black eyes set directly into his exposed frontal lobe.

"Okay, Memmy's here now. Let's hear the lumping story!" LSP whined. She had been pestering them the whole time they waited for the alien to show up, but Marceline wasn't planning on saying this twice. She considered her words as she swirled the dented tin cup of 'tea' LSP gave her, a whole leaf floating in muddy water.

"Well, as amusing as my amnesia might be to you, I'm not just here to tell stories. Since memories are kind of Mnemonoid's thing, I wondered if he might know something about all this."

She kept her words casual but eyed him closely as she said it. She doubted he was responsible, but if there was even the smallest chance, she had to make sure. Was that ripple in his temporal lobe frowning or just thinking? Trying to read expression from a giant brain with eyes wasn't exactly her forte.

"If you're insinuating my culpability, let me assure you I am beyond that," a smooth voice interrupted her thoughts and reverberated in her mind. "I sustain myself with stories now, or as the purple one calls them: the juice."

Those unblinking eyes bored into her, and she forced herself to meet them steadily.

"No, not at all. I was thinking more like you could tell how my memories were stolen. Or maybe you could even fix them."

"It is possible I could, if it interested me. As of now, simply forgetting something seems terribly pedestrian."

Mnemonoid's face-brain arched up in the middle, like someone raising their eyebrows.

"Yeah, girl! Give us some details," said LSP, oblivious to the gravity of the situation.

Marceline hesitated. It was one thing talking about this with Finn and Jake, who she trusted. Pouring her heart out to LSP and a stranger was another matter. Fortunately, Finn spared her that by explaining.

"It's not just a memory or two. Marcy and PB have known each other forever. And I mean like for-ever." He stretched his arms out wide for emphasis.

"I'm saying you're old," he whispered behind his hand to Marceline, which earned him a swat.

"Plus…" He leaned and paused dramatically. "They're da-"

At lightning speed, she slapped a hand over his mouth.

"We're, uh, da…dance instructors! Yeah! And, oh boy, business is tough when you can't remember any of your moves!"

She gave Finn a quick red-eyed glare as her cheeks brightened to match. Had Finn lost his mind? Telling LSP was like informing the entirety of Ooo! Plus, who knew if she and Bonnie really were dating? She certainly didn't. So there was no way she was going to make Finn's assumption public knowledge. You can't put that genie back in the bottle.

"Dancing?" LSP seemed perplexed, but Marceline heard Mnemonoid's chuckling in her mind.

"Ah, I sense the truth now." Was it possible for a mental voice to sound smug? "Intimate bonds, forged through time, but severed prematurely. How intriguing."

He leaned forwards.

"Shall I peer deeper?"

His enthusiasm was creeping her out, but this was what she came for.

"If you think you can help, go ahead."

Four tentacles snaked out from the collar of his robe. Each was donned in thorny barbs and dripped a clear, viscous fluid. Her stomach recoiled as they neared her, but she gritted her teeth and remained in place. This might be terrible idea. The alien might get inside her mind and devour her memories, what was left of them, but the risk was necessary.

She pictured Bonnie's expression from the night before as she explained what Marceline had lost. She remembered the dark bags under her eyes this morning. If these memories were that important, they were worth taking a chance to reclaim them.

The tentacles brushed up against the sides of her temples, cold and wet. Yet nothing happened. There was no stinging pain, no vivid hallucinations, just a slight pressure.

"Something was torn out rather inexpertly," Mnemonoid spoke disapprovingly. "Such amateurish work. Memories are connected like a vast, delicate net. A memory needs to be neatly sheared from its neighbors before it is extracted."

He made snipping motions with his hand.

"Yet whoever did this simply seized a powerful memory and pulled it out by force. A number of other related memories were drawn along in its wake, and still others were torn and left incomplete."

"So someone did remove my memories! Who?"

"It is impossible to say due to the extensive damage."

The word 'damage' sent cold fear into her stomach. Even if they found her memories, would they be able to restore them? Or was some part of her mind destroyed forever? She had always assumed there would be a clean fix. It was 'magic' after all. But what if that wasn't possible?

"Your thoughts grow agitated. If it is any solace, a few strong memories were left mostly whole. I can attempt to repair them if you wish."

"Please." Marceline agreed immediately. She needed something to hope for.

The pressure on her temples increased, and her vision fled from this place to a time past.

* * *

Electric speakers blared beside her and multicolored lights spun dizzyingly above as Marceline struck the final notes on her bass guitar. The sound of her music echoed and faded out and was replaced with the riotous cheering of the audience at her feet. The blood pounded in her ears, and she felt the raw excitement of bringing another perfect set to a close. She scanned the crowd, hoping to lock eyes with the person she had been thinking of while she performed.

She couldn't find her. Surely she had come though.

Marceline strode off stage on a wave of adulation from the crowd, but she felt her high slipping. Maybe the princess had come but had to leave early.

She changed backstage, stripping off her black t-shirt showing two candy heads and a snake impaled on sticks. It was the only copy she had left. The others had sold out along with the rest of the merchandise. It was a bit sweaty, but maybe Bonnie would want it after she washed it.

Probably not though. She felt her mood dip further. The princess would just think it was distasteful.

Ignoring the calls of guests and friends to join the after-party, she took off into the night sky. There was a question gnawing at her, and it propelled her towards the candy castle in haste. She arrived at the princess's bedroom in the highest tower and slipped in through the unlocked window.

There on the nightstand, right where she had left it, was a single unused ticket.

She stared at it a moment, not sure what to think. Not once during the tour had Bonnie come to see her. She knew that Bonnie was busy, that there were things she had to do that were more important than Marceline, but surely on one of those shows Marceline thought she might've come first. It never happened.

So on the eve of her final show, she had swallowed her pride and brought the girl a ticket, ready to beg her to come. Bonnie had been too busy to even talk to her.

Maybe this was good. It showed her exactly how far down Bonnie's list she was. Now she knew what she was worth.

With a trembling hand, she dropped the shirt on the ground and left.

* * *

She surfaced from the memory with a shuddering breath. The emotion of it still clung to her mind.

It was always the same. Bonnie, Ash, even her father. No one wanted her. She poured her heart into someone, but they never felt the same. She was just a nuisance, a trophy, or a tool.

Before she could separate from the memory that clouded her mind, she was plunged under again to another vision.

* * *

Marceline's phone vibrated in her pocket. Even before taking it out, she knew who it would be. Yep, Bonnie.

With a gleeful vindictiveness, she silenced the buzzing. Thinking again, she put the whole thing on silent mode. That was the third time Bonnie had called after all, and it was getting annoying to deal with. The princess needed to learn that Marceline wasn't at her beck and call at all times. Plus, it felt good to be the one doing the ignoring for once.

She turned back to her jam session with her band and put the phone out of her mind.

It wasn't until three days later, when she was sitting at home gnawing on a red refrigerator magnet for breakfast, that she remembered her phone was on silent. She opened it, figuring she might as well check it for messages.

A flurry of missed contacts greeted her. Nine missed calls. Five unread messages. All from Bonnie.

They asked her to call back, to respond, and eventually to come to the castle, all in increasingly urgent language. 'Help' she had said in one of them. That had been over a day ago.

A cold dread settled in her stomach as visions flashed through her mind of Bonnie hurt or trapped or in danger.

She left her house and cave as fast as she could, leaving her door hanging open. The fading dusk light stung her bare skin as she headed for the castle. Once there, she saw that a section of the wall was collapsed, and swath of the town had been turned into melted candy rubble.

At the moment, that didn't concern her.

She skimmed over the buildings, scanning street by street until she heard her voice. Bonnie stood amidst a group of candy workers, overseeing the removal of rubble. Her pink dress was a mottled gray from soot, but she appeared unharmed. She was safe.

Marceline landed next to the princess, but when Bonnie to face her, she was at a loss for what to say. 'I'm here.' 'I got your message.' 'Sorry about your kingdom.' Everything that came to mind sounded cruelly cavalier.

"Are you okay?" It was Bonnie who spoke the words that she should've said.

She could only nod dumbly.

"When you didn't answer your phone, I was worried."

"Sorry," she whispered through the force constricting her lungs. Sorry for many things.

"It's fine. It's over now."

Could the princess read the guilt on her face? The force of it made her dig her nails into her skin.

"I have it under control," Bonnie said, turning away.

It was a dismissal if Marceline had ever heard one. And it was deserved.

Even now as she looked at Bonnie's back, she couldn't think of what to say to make it better, so she left. Maybe what the princess needed most was for her to disappear. As she flew away, her sensitive ears picked up Bonnie's faint words behind her.

"I shouldn't have expected anything."

* * *

The second memory left her feeling nauseous. She didn't deserve to be with Bonnie, or with any of her friends really. She was just a parasite, never there when they really needed her. Her and her pride should just be alone.

She tried to shake her head to dispel the thoughts, but the tentacles held her fast. Each of these visions felt as though she was living them for the first time, like waking up from a nightmare and knowing it was real.

She tried to plead for it to stop, but her voice failed her as she was pulled down into the recesses of her mind again.

* * *

Marceline sat on the princess's bed, pressed shoulder to shoulder with Bonnie. Her legs were warm under the covers, and she leaned back against the soft purple headboard. A paperback book lay in her lap, open to the same page it was on half an hour ago. Bonnie likewise was reading a book, albeit a much more scholarly one.

Right now, she was simply existing.

Earlier today she had lost Hambo again, this time forever. Though she had done it willingly, the loss still stung. She had also spoken with Simon, his true self, but only for a few moments before she lost him back to the curse of the Ice King. It was enough to remind her of what she had lost so long ago.

She didn't want to be alone, so she had come to Bonnie under the excuse of looking for a book to read. Marceline didn't explain why, and thankfully the princess didn't ask. She simply gave her a book and suggested they read together on the bed.

As they curled up together, the vampire was grateful for her friend's perceptiveness. Without a word, she somehow knew what Marceline wanted. The usual banter was gone. She offered her presence but held back her questions.

Marceline leaned her head on Bonnie's shoulder, feeling the warmth on her cheek. It was too much for a friendly gesture, but the other girl didn't move away.

Surely, no one else understood her like this. Closing her book, she began to talk about her day.

* * *

The memory faded, and Mnemonoid withdrew his tentacles. Three sets of eyes bore down on her, waiting for a reaction, but she was still caught in the maelstrom of the memories' emotions inside her. The peacefulness of the last one had calmed her though. She could feel Bonnie's warmth fading from her skin.

She mumbled an excuse and floated outside of the clearing, where she sat and pressed her back up against one of the trees. She could hear Finn and LSP's voices, but she tuned them out.

What had she learned? One, that she was a screw up, but she already knew that. Even now she was causing problems for Bonnie, not to mention Finn and Jake. Two, that her relationship with the princess was seriously important. She had abstractly believed that, but believing something and feeling it were two very different things.

The memories hadn't made what their relationship was any clearer though. All she could conclude was: it's complicated.

She heard the tread of feet on dried leaves behind her, and Finn peeked around the tree.

"You okay?"

She shrugged, not sure herself.

"You want to talk about it?" he asked.

"Not really."

He nodded and turned around to leave.

"It's just…is it even a good idea to get my memories back?" she said despite herself.

"What? Yeah, of course it is," he said confidently. "Wait, you want to forget PB?"

"No." That much was certain. "But it might be easier going into things with a clean slate. You ever feel like your past is controlling you?"

His expression said that he didn't. Finn could always look forward, but she didn't have that strength. Maybe she'd be better off without all that bitterness and self-hatred from her memories.

Her personality would still be the same though, so she'd most likely end up making the same mistakes again. Maybe if she got her memories back, she'd learn something for once.

Also, Bonnie said that things changed about a year ago. Maybe they had gotten better over time.

"I don't know why you don't want to remember, but sometimes we just have to do things for other people," Finn said with a serious expression. "I think no matter what, you should get your memories back for PB. If Jake suddenly said he didn't want to remember me, that'd be pretty rough."

He was right of course. For a moment, she had been so wrapped up in herself, she had forgotten Bonnie's perspective. She didn't know what was good for herself, but making Bonnie happy was a clear guidepost she could move by.

She rose and patted Finn on the head, feeling remarkably more lighthearted.

"Maybe you are an adult."


	4. Chapter 4

_Notes: Whoops! So in canon, 'memory core' means 'center of mind' whereas I've been using it mean a single memory that you extract as an orb. Oh well! I'll keep using it my way for consistency's sake. Thanks for everyone's comments too!_

* * *

Exploring the inside of someone's mind was surprisingly normal, Bonnie found. She had expected a more surreal experience like that time she gassed herself with a hallucinogen in her lab. For the rest of that unfortunate day, she had to pretend to act normal whenever talking to her candy subjects, while on the inside she saw their colors spin in rainbow patterns, felt blood run from their cute button eyes, and heard their warbling voices sound like the screams of the damned.

Compared to that, the inside of Jake's mind was practically mundane. Instead of a mystical wonderland, Ash's magic powder had brought her to a concrete representation of a memory, one which she recognized as the time in the candy castle hospital after the pups were born.

In this memory, Jake, the newly minted father, knelt on a blanket on the floor surrounded by his newborn puppies. To call them 'newborn' was a bit off though. After only a single day, the dog-rainicorn hybrids had aged into young children, already a couple feet tall and able to walk and talk. Bonnie remembered how shocked she had been when she had visited the next day and seen them so grown. Apparently time was a bit wonky with rainicorns, and Lady hadn't been the least bit perturbed.

Bonnie hadn't seen this particular scene before though. Jake, for some unfathomable reason, had wrapped a bedsheet around himself like a dress and smeared his face with lipstick gotten from who knows where. He was pantomiming a tea party in a falsetto voice, and the kids were happily playing along. Then before her eyes, one of the children spontaneously aged in a shower of rainbow magic. She grew a foot taller in moments, her hair lengthened, and the cute baby fat in her cheeks melted away and was replaced with a teenager's scowl.

"Ugh, you're so lame, Dad. Stop treating me like a kid!" she said as she stood up from the party. The girl, who Bonnie now recognized as Charlie, had blond hair hanging over one eye, and she used her horn to dye it and her clothes into pure black.

"What? You can't talk to your mother like that," said Jake, still using a high-pitched voice.

"Gross." Her stare was filled with disdain. "And don't tell me what to do. You don't even know me."

"Well, it has only been a few days…" Jake trailed off, his eyes swimming. The teenager gave one last sneer of disgust, turned, and fled out of the room.

"You'll respect me in a couple days when you're older!" He hollered after her, as her footsteps echoed down the hallway.

Bonnie smiled fondly as Jake returned to entertaining his other children. In hindsight, it had probably been for the best that they grew up so fast. Jake certainly loved his kids, and he was good at entertaining them, but Bonnie doubted he'd have been happy as a full-time caretaker for years. His nature was more free-spirited.

Not that she could blame him though. She'd certainly had her fair share of mistakes with her creations like Lemongrab and Goliad.

As she looked at the sparkle in Jake's eyes as he played with his kids, she wondered if there was a difference between creations and children. She imagined for a moment Marceline sitting on her couch, bouncing a little boy or girl on her knee. The child looked up at her, its smiling face holding a mixture of their features, black and pink, sharp and soft.

A useless dream.

She crushed the thought savagely, despite the twinge it sent through her. This wasn't the time to be daydreaming of the impossible. Every moment wasted was a moment closer to Marceline losing her memories forever. She tamped her emotions down and headed for the door to exit the memory. There would be time for all of that later when people weren't counting on her.

She walked through room after room, hardly stopping to look, until she entered a vast dark chamber: the center of Jake's mind. A branching tree of glowing white held his memory cores like ripe fruit. Now, all she had to do was pluck one. She searched for a trivial memory, something that wouldn't be missed, and found an orb on a lower branch that glowed dimmer than the rest.

Peering inside, she saw the blue carpet and pink wallpaper of Marceline's house. The room was empty save for Jake standing opposite of Schwabl, Marceline's pet poodle.

"Hey man, how's it going? I'm Jake." He stuck his hand forward to shake hands. The other dog trotted over and sniffed his hand in response.

"Uh, you okay, dude?" he said, pulling back a bit.

The poodle yipped and began racing circles around an increasingly alarmed Jake.

"Marceline! I think your friend is having an episode," he shouted upstairs but got no reply from the vampire. Instead, Schwabl jumped up on Jake's chest with two paws and licked him in the face.

"Argh, no! Dude, I have a girlfriend." Jake pushed the poodle away and backed slowly towards the door. Schwabl, oblivious to his crisis, followed.

The memory faded to black as it ended, and Bonnie plucked it from the tree with a small smile. She was sure Jake wouldn't miss this one. Still, it was hard to believe that in the distant past dogs used to be like animals. Wondering what other crazy things the old world held, she willed herself awake.

* * *

Bonnie opened her eyes in her laboratory, the glowing memory core cradled in her lap like a precious egg. The translucent sphere was light as air with rubbery skin that felt as if it might pop if she squeezed too hard. She laid it within a glass box for protection and then held the orb up to admire it.

As much as she despised 'magic'—which was truly just unexplained science—the things it produced were often beautiful. The clear orb had an inky shape swirling inside it like an egg yolk crossed with a Rorschach test. From a distance it looked vaguely like a dog's head, but as she drew closer the shape dispersed and resolved itself into the scene of Jake and Schwabl, playing on repeat.

"Is that my memory?" said Jake, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Bonnie handed over the box to him.

"Neat!" He held it up to the light and peered into it. "Huh, don't remember that."

"Well I should hope not," Bonnie laughed. "Be careful with it though. We need to preserve it to see how long memories can last outside of a person."

"Ah, your experiment?" he asked as he handed it back over.

"Yes, part of it at least. I also need to see if it emits any detectable physical or chemical signatures. Electromagnetic fields, UV radiation, olfactory emissions, you know, that kind of thing."

"Right…"

"Then I can calibrate this radar, or as I'm calling it 'memdar', to detect memory cores at range." She gestured to a small box with a radar dish attached to it on her workbench.

"Cool. I guess? So are you all set? You've got the orb."

Bonnie hesitated for a moment, knowing what was coming next.

"No, not quite. I…" She grimaced at this part. "I need you to go into my brain too and find a strong memory. Of Marceline."

Jake's eyes lit up on hearing this. In fact, they literally became twice as big and started to glow. That couldn't be a good sign.

"It's just possible different memories last for different amounts of time outside of a person or even give off different signatures based on their strength and composition," she hurried to explain.

Damn wizards. If only they had kept proper notes on memory cores, she wouldn't have to do all of this research from scratch. But no, the words 'empirical' and 'research' probably made their brains explode.

"No problem, PB! Your memories are in the hands of the best. I'm a veteran mind spelunker after all."

Jake shapeshifted his yellow fur into a miner's outfit, complete with hard hat and headlamp, a pickaxe in one hand, and a rope slung over his shoulder. The image of him gleefully using a pickaxe to smash through her gray matter wasn't making her feel any better though.

"While I appreciate your enthusiasm, just stick to the plan. Find one memory with Marceline and extract it."

Logically she knew she was being hypocritical to Jake. She had already poked around in his head. But after keeping secrets for so many years, it was hard to feel comfortable with sharing her innermost thoughts. Sharing ones related to the vampire might be the hardest.

"Just don't look around too much," she repeated.

"You got it, girl," Jake readily agreed. "I'll be as blind as a bat." He shrank his eyes until they disappeared, and he started stumbling around with his hands stretched out in front of him.

"Thanks. Now please hurry. I can't afford to sleep when there's so much work left to do."

She drew a pinch of the magic powder from the bag and sprinkled it over her eyes. Despite her words, closing her weary eyes felt good, and she sank immediately into a deep sleep.

* * *

Jake opened his eyes to find himself in a different version of Princess Bubblegum's lab, one cluttered with cylindrical vats overflowing with raw candies in various shades: yellow lemon drops, red fireballs, green gummy worms, and a dozen others. He peered around with interest. Fortunately for him, bats weren't blind at all. In fact, their eyesight was quite good.

He found Bonnie seated on a barstool before a hydraulic press. She poured carefully measured amounts of raw candy into the chamber beneath the press and then pulled the lever. The hammer came down with a hiss and produced a cloud of sugary smoke where it connected with the candy pile. When the press retreated and the cloud cleared, a tiny candy person stood in the chamber.

"Warblegarble!" The six-inch candy creature made a high-pitched cry from its deformed mouth. Its face was a bit lopsided with one eye higher than the other, and its long mouth slanted from one ear down to the opposite shoulder. The creature stumbled as it tried to take faltering steps on its uneven limbs.

The princess scratched down a few notes in her notebook and then pulled the level again. The hammer pulverized the creature ever so slowly, and its candy shards were released to fall into a bucket that held more than a few pounds of broken candy.

Bonnie repeated the process a few times as Jake watched in horrid fascination. Each time the mixture of ingredients was a bit different, and so too was the resulting candy person. Their eventual fate, however, was always the same.

"Uggaaa!" Another creature screamed. Scritch, scratch, went Bonnie's pencil as she took notes. Smash went the press as demolished the experiment.

"Kikikiki!" Notes. Smash.

"Mothaaar…." Notes. Smash.

Feeling a bit disturbed as the more lifelike creations were turned to rubble, Jake headed to the next memory.

As he passed through the lab's doorway, he stepped onto a cold marble floor and found himself in a grand ballroom. The room was filled with an eclectic array of creatures from all over Ooo. To his left was a kangaroo lady in a yellow gown, her huge feet poking out from the beneath the edge of her petticoats, and a stuffy-looking zucchini gentleman smoking a pipe and wearing a monocle over one eye. To his right was a pair of young pillow girls with elaborate embroidery on their colorful pillow cases. The only unifying theme among the guests was that they were dressed to the nines and had that hoity air of rich folk about them.

The venue was nice though. Jake didn't recognize it, as he wasn't the sort to get invited anywhere fancy, but the music, the lighting, and the mouth-watering aroma of food set a good atmosphere.

He weaved a path through the crowd to the buffet table and saw Princess Bubblegum along the way. She stood with a half circle of people arrayed before her and spoke animatedly to the group. As soon as Jake heard a few words like 'policy', 'trade', and 'reciprocity', he tuned out the rest, but the listeners seemed to hang off her every word.

The buffet table was more alluring in his opinion though. He'd never had dream food before. Mini-quiches, fried crickets, and piles of cotton candy (or was that just cotton?) were laid out, catering to all types of people.

Wondering where to start, he saw a shrimp float up off a tray and dunk itself into the cocktail sauce. Silently, it rose into the air and had its reddish color drained from both the seafood and the sauce, leaving it a dry and gray husk. Then the shrimp hurtled through the air, landing with a splat on the sun hat of one of the women talking to the princess. No one seemed to notice except Bonnie who paused her speech as her eyes slid over to the table.

Another shrimp was consumed the same way, and when this one was thrown, it landed on the back of a man's neck as he was asking a question of the princess. The man cut off with a shriek and did little jig as the cold shellfish slid down inside his shirt. Bonnie excused herself during the confusion and marched over to the buffet table. She reached about in the air until she seemed to grab hold of something, and then she dragged it over to the edge of the room.

"What is wrong with you?" Bonnie put her hands on her hips and glowered at the air.

Marceline's lean, dark form materialized before her. Her eyes were squinted in mirth, and she bit her lip as her chest rose and fell with suppressed laughter.

"His face…" She tried to get her laughter under control. "But look, they're bonding!"

She pointed back towards the group, where one the ladies was trying to hold the writhing man still while another man reached his arm down his shirt to fish out the offending crustacean. Bonnie shook her head in disbelief and tried to look stern, but the smile that kept trying to form on her face ruined the effect.

"I can't believe they still invite you to these things," she said.

"Me neither. I guess they figure they can't stop me from coming either way."

Marceline looked out over the crowd. Almost everyone was either talking or eating.

"But it's a good thing they did. Without me, people just might start dying of boredom."

"It's a diplomatic event. People are supposed to be talking, not…shelling each other with shellfish."

She poked the vampire in the chest to emphasize her point. Marceline folded her hand around Bonnie's, but after a quick glance at the crowd, Bonnie pulled away, prompting a brief frown from the vampire.

"Well regardless, I'm providing a valuable service. People don't get closer by talking about business. They get closer by cutting loose and having fun. Hmm, did I mention you look amazing?"

Marceline's gaze raked over the princess from top to bottom. Her hair was piled atop her head, leaving her neck bare. A sleeveless wine-colored dress hugged her waist, and she wore a diaphanous shawl in the crooks of her elbows. The dress's skirt flared about her hips and was cut shorter in the front, letting pink sandals peek through. Eventually Marceline's eyes returned to Bonnie's face, and she gave her a heated smile. Bonnie fiddled with the shawl in her hands as her cheeks and the tips of her ears turned a brighter shade of pink. She smiled back shyly.

"Thanks. You look great too."

She straightened the collar of Marceline's white dress shirt that had the top button undone. It laid beneath a tight-fitting black vest and matching slacks. Her only color was a red ribbon tying her long black hair into a ponytail. The vampire's fangs dimpled her lips as her smile became more mischievous.

"So how about we get started on that 'having fun'? Care to dance, princess?" She extended a hand towards the other girl in a mock half-bow.

Bonnie's smile melted off her face.

"Oh, I can't," she said apologetically. "It's, you know." She gestured to the room full of people.

Marceline's mouth formed a line, but then she brightened again.

"Don't worry. You're a great dancer, and I promise not to show you up too much."

"Marcy," Bonnie warned.

"I know, I know!" She sighed. "But what does it matter what they think about us?"

"Seeing as they determine what resources my kingdom gets in trade, I'd say it matters quite a lot."

"You're stronger than them. They should be the ones catering to you!"

Bonnie shook her head. This sounded to Jake like an argument they had had before.

"We can always dance some other time," Bonnie offered.

"When we're alone? Perhaps sealed in a vault somewhere?" Marceline's voice grew heated for a moment, and she heaved a sigh, letting the frustration drain out of her. "I just don't like having to hold back every time we're together."

Bonnie didn't say anything and pulled her shawl tighter around herself.

"How about just once? Other people are dancing, and it doesn't mean anything." She pointed to a young boy and his mother on the dance floor. "I promise not to anything uncouth toward your royal personage."

She stepped forward to take hold of Bonnie's hand, but the princess retreated just as quickly.

"I can't."

Bonnie's back step bumped a tray table of empty wine glasses, setting it to rocking back and forth. Several of the glasses on the edge tumbled over and fell to the floor, shattering with a loud crash.

The sound drew all eyes in the vicinity, and the guests, upon seeing Marceline and Bonnie together at the source of the sound, began whispering amongst themselves. Bonnie seemed frozen in indecision, but Marceline stepped in front of her. Her face melted into an expression of relaxed arrogance.

"Heh, princess, you should see your face. Ah, I never get tired of messing with strangers," she said loud enough for the crowd to hear. "Hmm, who should I play with next?"

She looked out over the crowd with a vicious grin, and most of the eyes flinched away. A few met her gaze with defiant frowns or sneers though. Others looked at Bonnie sympathetically. As the vampire floated towards the exit, the crowd parted before her, and the whispers turned to discussing the vampire or hurling insults at her.

Bonnie meanwhile raised an arm towards Marceline as she left, but silently let it drop. Then, to Jake's bewilderment, a second version of Bonnie seemed to step out of the first. This one was ethereal, and the ghostly princess stepped forward boldly address the crowd.

"Marceline isn't uncouth or a menace or any of those things you're whispering! None of you know her, so don't talk like you do."

As she said this, a ghostly double split out of the retreating Marceline and turned back towards Bonnie. The two doppelgangers met each other's eyes.

"Marceline is an important friend and…and...more than that," she squeezed out the words. "Anyone who has a problem with that can go straight to the nightosphere!"

The two ethereal figures faded away as if they had never been. The original Bonnie remained, rooted to the floor, staring with hands clenched as Marceline left the room.

What in the world was that? Jake wondered. It didn't seem real, so was it a fantasy? He headed out of the room as well, not much in the mood for exploring anymore.

If that fantasy was what she wanted to do, why not just do it? It was simple, right?

PB held herself back too much. Finn had that same problem too. They were always thinking about what the 'right' thing to do was, which just seemed dumb to Jake.

If your heart wants something, go do it—within reason of course. If your heart was set on crafting a peanut butter replica of someone and then devouring it in front of them, you should probably just handle that business by yourself.

Maybe he should have a talk with the girls when he got back. Finn having relationship problems he could understand, but PB and Marcy were too old for some of this nonsense.

With that in mind, he sped through the next few rooms until he reached the center of Bonnie's mind. He stretched his legs to quickly scale the white tree and found the memory core of the ballroom, a glowing sphere with an inky black center in the shape of a shrimp. Pulling it from the tree, he pinched himself until he awoke.


	5. Chapter 5

At an hour past dawn, Bonnie waited in the ravine outside Wizard City for her companions to arrive. The rocky wall dug into her back as she leaned against it, but she paid it little mind as she thumbed through the book in her hands. "To Catch a Killer" wasn't her usual fare of reference book. Rather, it was a collection lurid stories of a heinous criminals and how they were eventually brought to justice. It did, however, highlight another avenue of investigation: motive. If an act is perpetrated for a reason, one can logically deduce who might hold such a motivation.

Now, if she were an evil mastermind, why would she steal Marceline's memories?

One, they could be ransomed for something. No one had come forth with any demands, though, so that was unlikely.

Two, the theft could create a rift between her and Marceline. An enemy would might exploit their separation to attack one of them. Again, no such thing had occurred though. Plus, stealing memories seemed like a convoluted way to go about it. Maybe instead, someone wanted to subtly influence them, like Marceline's father perhaps.

Three, it could simply be a distraction. While they were off on a wild goose chase, someone would take that opportunity to cause some mischief unnoticed. Again, that seemed rather roundabout, and weren't they already distracted by a different crisis every week anyways?

Four, someone held a grudge against Marceline and wanted to hurt her. Bonnie allowed herself to daydream for a bit, thinking of the 'creative' ways she would deal with this person once she caught them.

Five, the memories themselves may be valuable. If a sentimental shirt could be a source of power, why not memories? Maja was at the top of that suspect list, but most any wizard could have the means and the motivation to do such a thing.

Hence why they were going to Wizard City.

The simplest explanation was most often correct, and her gut was telling her a wizard was involved somehow. She snapped the book closed and slid it into her pack. She settled in to wait, trying not to think of the final option, that it was her or Marceline.

Speak of the devil, the vampire was the first to arrive. Her form was silhouetted against the sun as she floated down the ravine to land next to Bonnie. She was wearing some sort of witch's outfit with a long black cloak that billowed about her as she descended and a floppy conical hat. The hat's wide brim slid over her eyes as she let out a wide, fanged yawn before greeting the princess.

"Morning."

"Good morning to you. I'm surprised you made it up this early."

Bonnie tilted the brim up so she could see the vampire's half-lidded eyes. Marceline gave her a lazy smile in response.

"Yeah, don't remind me. I've been out in the day so much recently, I might as well be diurnal. Where's your disguise by the way?" She gestured to the princess's attire consisting of a sleeveless white and black top with a peach skirt. "Not exactly what I picture when I think of 'wizard', unless you're the wizard of looking good."

Bonnie laughed, feeling the urge to roll her eyes at the cheesiness.

"Hate to break it to you, girl, but you don't need to be a wizard to get into Wizard City anymore."

"What? When did that happen?"

"After Betty Groff saved them from Bella Noche, they figured having 'no-mags' around might be useful. Or more likely, it's just because their barrier is busted."

She pointed further down the ravine to where huge chunks of black quartz littered the ground—the remnants of Bella Noche's outer shell. Where once the chasm would have ended in solid stone, now it laid open and buildings were faintly visible in the distance.

"Oh, I guess I never saw the aftermath. I was a bit distracted with how Simon was doing." She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "So I'm just cosplaying then?"

"Yep! I'll give you a pass though because you're cute," she said with aplomb, giving Marceline a taste of her own medicine. She reached up to fix the collar of her cloak. Inside it, Marceline was wearing her normal t-shirt and jeans. "It's good sun protection too, I bet."

"Yeah, but the light's still making me sleepy." She yawned again. "I have an idea though. Hold still for a second."

Not sure what the vampire was wanting, Bonnie held still as Marceline stepped close to her and transferred her hat to Bonnie's head so that they were both within its shade. When the other girl rested her chin on Bonnie's shoulder, though, she reflexively leaned in and had to stop herself from wrapping her arms around the girl's waist.

"Wake me when Finn and Jake get here," Marceline whispered, and a moment later, Bonnie felt something soft and furry scrabble across her shoulder and drop into her backpack.

Blinking in surprise, she slid one of the pack's straps off her shoulder held the bag in front of her. Nested inside, amongst the papers and other doodads, was black, furry bat with large ears, a snout nose, and gleaming little eyes. It chirped up at her before burying its head under one of its wings.

The princess felt a goofy smile form on her face as she looked down at Marceline's bat form. She had seen it before, of course, but each time it was sweet enough to make her teeth rot—which shouldn't be possible for a candy person, but that's how it was.

The bat squeaked up at her again, more insistently this time.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." She cinched the bag closed to block out any stray light. "There, happy?"

The chirp this time sounded pleased.

Bonnie held the bag gently, feeling her heart swell. What was with Marceline today? After she lost her memories, she had been friendly—barring that first encounter of course—but now she was being downright affectionate. Bonnie wasn't complaining, but it still left her puzzled.

She had tried to give Marceline space, tried not to be selfish and impose her feelings on her while she was still confused. She remembered how Ash manipulated her after stealing the memory of their breakup, and that still made her blood boil. She was determined not to be like that.

But maybe distance wasn't what she needed now.

She shook her head. If only this was rocket science. That would be easier to understand.

* * *

Half an hour later, Jake crested the top of the ravine and saw the princess down below, waiting for them.

"Heyo!" he called and grinned at hearing his voice echoing through the canyon.

"You're late!" Bonnie shouted back up.

He grabbed hold of the edge of the cliff and, once Finn clambered onto his back, let his arms spool out like rope until they reached the bottom.

"Sorry we're late, PB" said Finn as the two of them trotted over.

"Yeah, Finn took a long time getting ready—you know, in case we met Huntress Wizard."

"What? No I didn't!"

"You totally did, dude." He grinned, watching his brother turn red and squirm. "Plus no one can even see your hair anyways when it's tucked under your hoodie."

"It…it was a normal amount of time! And we got here before Marceline, so it doesn't even matter." He crossed his arms as though that decided it.

"Actually, Marceline's already here," said Bonnie.

Jake looked about but didn't see her. That was normal with the vampire though. She was probably sneaking up on them, getting ready to spook them or something.

"Hey Marcy," he picked a random spot in the air and waved.

"No, she's here." The princess pointed to her backpack.

"Marceline turned into a backpack?" He raised an eyebrow. That was a new one.

"Neat!" Finn said, accepting his explanation. When he poked the bag though, a chorus of squeaks came from within.

"Not quite," the princess chuckled. She opened the bag a bit and whispered inside. "Time to wake up, schlafmütze."

She set the bag on the ground and put the witch's hat on top of it. A short time later the hat shuffled to the side and then rose into the air as Marceline reformed underneath it. The strange hat made a bit more sense now that he could see it was part of a larger outfit—or more like a disguise.

"Looks like someone didn't get the memo on Wizard City," he whispered loudly to Finn.

"Cram it," she hissed. "Or maybe I should wear dog fur instead."

"I don't think yellow would look good on you," he said sheepishly as he backed away.

"Alright you two. Are we doing this or what?" said Bonnie, stepping in.

At the no-nonsense tone from the princess, they began heading down the ravine towards the city. It seemed a bit different from the last time Jake was here. Across the entryway was a chain link fence with a booth and metal turnstile serving as a gate in the center. Painted on the side of the booth in slapdash orange handwriting was 'Wizard Land', and there were actually people waiting in line to enter.

At the front of the line, a momma cat with six kittens was trying to push a gray pile of fur into the booth window, while the operator there desperately tried to keep it out.

"Ma'am, ma'am! We don't accept dead mice as legal tender!"

"Well, of all the nerve. I demand to speak with your manager!" The cat crossed its arms with a huff.

This elicited a chorus of groans from the dozen or so other people in line behind them. Jake wasn't particularly in a hurry, but the rapidly tapping foot of the princess beside him said she didn't feel the same.

"Nope, not dealing with this," said Bonnie as she walked straight past the line, ignoring the shouts of indignation from the people she passed. Once at the counter, she set down a bag which spilled gleaming gold coins into the morning light.

"This should be enough for everyone, right?" she asked the booth operator, who nodded in reply.

"Great. Everybody into the city," she shouted, waving the crowd forward. The earlier complaints turned to cheers, and the turnstile spun freely as people surged into the park, err, city.

"Nice! Money really does solve everything," Jake said as he walked over to the princess.

"Well, some things at least." She looked over to where Marceline was lifting up a squirming Finn under the armpits to show him a better view of the city.

"You know this is a good opportunity," he said quietly enough that the other two wouldn't hear.

"Yes, I think there's a good chance we'll at least find some clues here."

"No, not that. I mean it's a good opportunity for a date!"

The princess's head turned towards him, and her eyes narrowed.

"I don't see how that's important right now."

"Of course it is. The whole point of this is to get back together with your girlfriend, right?"

Bonnie's scowled, and her voice turned low and venomous. "It is not."

"O-okay, fair," he floundered for a bit under the intensity of her gaze. "But that's…one of the goals." He tried to remember where he was going with this in the first place. "So why not have some fun while you're doing your searching? It's never a bad idea to rack up some brownie points with your girl."

Bonnie seemed to mull that over, so he decided to push a bit more.

"Plus, if she never gets her memories back, you'll have to start over anyways."

Oops. Judging from how the princess's eyes widened and panned over to him menacingly, he probably shouldn't have said that. Normally he had to shapeshift to put his foot in his mouth, but here he was doing it easily. He cringed back, expecting a verbal lashing, but surprisingly Bonnie just turned away and sighed. It was a few moments before she spoke.

"You're right. Ignoring an issue doesn't make it go away. Pragmatic, proactive problem-solving," she said as though repeating a mantra.

"So you're on board?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got your point."

"Cool. Now let me give you a few tips." He stretched his legs up to her height and reached an arm around her shoulder to whisper to her more easily.

"Ugh, enough. I know how to take someone on a date," she said, brushing off his arm, but she was smiling again. "Thanks, Jake."

"Anytime, PB." He gave her two thumbs up.

They turned to meet Finn and Marceline as they returned. The pair had somehow gotten balloons and corndogs already with an extra set for Bonnie and Jake. The princess raised an eyebrow at her corndog which was smeared in a suspicious gray sauce.

"What? I only wanted the ketchup," Marceline explained.

The princess acted put upon but took a bite nonetheless. From the way Marceline smile at her and fell in by her side, Jake didn't think Bonnie would have too much trouble on her date.


	6. Chapter 6

The wizards had really done a number on the city, replacing destroyed buildings with gift shops, food stands, and magically powered-and quite possibly dangerous—thrill rides. In the scant year since Bonnie had been here, they had remodeled the place into a hybrid of its old self and a theme park. They would need the money, she supposed, to rebuild after half the city was flattened by a giant black cube. And judging from the number of guests present, it appeared to be working.

Just ahead, a wizard wearing a giant mascot head of a different wizard was walking backwards leading a group of little rock people.

"Hi there, everybody! My name's Tour Guide Wizard, and I'll be guiding you through the wonderful world of wizarding!" she sang in a saccharine voice. "Does everybody know the first rule of Wizard Land?"

"No!" came the enthusiastic reply from the bouncing rock children.

"The first rule is…" Suddenly her voice switched to a low, rapid-fire tone. "You hereby accept all risks of participating in Wizard Land activities, including any risks arising from employee carelessness or negligence or from dangerous or defective equipment. Wizard Land, LLC, is not liable for any harm you or your loved ones may undergo, including but not limited to, transmutation, petrification, exsanguination, or decapitation."

The kids stared at her blankly.

"Wonderful! Let's continue on then!" She snapped her fingers and spun on her heel, leading the group away.

No sooner had they rounded the bend though, when Bonnie heard a distant 'Oops' and the crash of breaking glass. Moments later, a round and now blueberry-colored rock child floated above the city skyline and began floating away on the breeze.

"Remind me not to try any samples," Bonnie muttered to herself as the child disappeared over the horizon with a faint 'Wee!'

Shaking her head, she turned back to Marceline when a figure in an alleyway caught her eye. There, in the shadowy crevice between an apothecary shop and Magic Bill's Wand Shootin' Gallery was someone watching her. The dim light made it hard to distinguish, but it looked vaguely birdlike with a cloak of brown feathers wrapped around its body and pale, scrawny feet sticking out of the bottom. When she made eye contact with the person, it raised a bone white finger to its lips and ducked back down the alley, its cloaking fluttering behind it.

"Uh, you see that?" she elbowed her companion.

"Hmm? See what?" Marceline's eyes were locked on to a blue, liquid filled jar that she was holding up to the sky. The tiny golden stars within reflected the light as they swirled about. "Sign says a drop of this potion will clean a month's worth of dirty dishes in an instant. Now that's something I can get behind."

"Well, one, letting dishes pile up for a month: gross. Two, you don't even use dishes."

"Hey, I eat strawberries with a fork sometimes! But I guess so." She set the jar back down and then scanned her eyes over the street. "So, what am I looking for exactly?"

"Oh, nothing. He's gone now. Just some weirdo that was staring at us. More importantly, you ready to get started?"

She hefted the 'memdar', a breadbox-sized contraption of iron with a small radar dish and an array of quartz crystals inlaid on its surface. She flipped the on switch, hoping it wouldn't explode. She hadn't exactly had time for rigorous field testing.

Fortunately, there was no conflagration, and it whirred to life. Its radar dish slowly spun about, and the inlaid crystals hummed and blinked with a faint red light. Any time a strong source of physic resonance came within thirty meters, the device should start frantically beeping, alerting them to the possibility of a memory core nearby.

She had given an identical machine to Finn and Jake when they had split up earlier. The boys would take the eastern half of the city, while they took the west. Each group would comb the streets, relying on the memdar to detect anything.

"It still impresses me that you were able to make this in a day. Bonnie the science genius." Marceline smiled at her. "I had heard from Finn you could do stuff like this, but seeing it is really cool."

Well, it had taken a day and a sleepless night and most of the morning while eating breakfast. But Marceline didn't need to know that.

"What can I say? I'm just that good." She smirked.

"Uh huh. Looks a bit bulky though. Have you thought of, I don't know, not making it out of a rusty microwave?"

The princess scoffed.

"Sorry I didn't have time to make a groundbreaking invention and also make it slim and chic."

Which was a shame really since the thing was flipping heavy, now that she was holding it. Her arms were going to be like a chewed up wad of gum after today.

"Haah, I guess my style can take a hit for today." The vampire sighed dramatically and scooped the machine out of her arms. She flew ahead down the street before turning back.

"Really though, making me combine steampunk with fantasy?" She fluttered her witch's cape and shook her head in disapproval.

Bonnie suppressed a smile as she trotted to catch up with her. Only Marceline would try to disguise helping someone. Still, she was grateful. She fell in beside the other girl and began their patrol through the city.

* * *

Unfortunately, a thirty-meter radius didn't cover a lot in a city that spanned miles. By the time it was midafternoon, they had walked—or floated—a dozen swaths through the city, but still there hadn't been a peep from the device. All she had gotten were a pair of sore feet and another run-in with that creepy cloaked guy, again watching them from the shadows and disappearing as soon as she saw him.

The sore feet were the more distressing of the two. She fantasized for a moment about driving a car through the narrow streets instead of walking. How nice that would be, going at breakneck speeds with the wind blowing in her hair, wizards screaming and diving out of the way, oh and maybe a wedge on the front to toss aside any who were too slow to escape.

Ah, that'd be the life. She sighed wearily.

"How about a break?" Marceline asked, looking at her with concern. The vampire was sweating a bit too, although probably more from the harsh sun reflecting off the street than from exertion.

"Break sounds wonderful." She stretched, cracking her back.

She really shouldn't have brought a backpack full of books and guns along with her too.

"There's a bench over there." Marceline zipped over to a short bench by a slushie stand. The thing was clearly sized for a smaller species of people though. "Hmm, more like a chair really. You take it then."

Bonnie started to protest, but Marceline waved her off.

"Nah, someone left a nice air chair right here." She floated into a sitting position next to the bench. "Ooh, it's a La-Z-Boy!" She mimicked pressing a button the side of it and reclined backwards. Suddenly she started vibrating in the air. "Ah, and a massage function too!"

"Pff, get over here, you goof." Bonnie grabbed Marceline's hand and pulled her down next to her on the bench so that they were hip to hip. "We can fit if we squeeze."

They rested like that for a time, enjoying a comfortable silence and watching people pass by. The vampire's shoulder was cool pressed up against her own, a welcome relief on a sunny day, and she had to stop herself from leaning her cheek against it. After a time, she broke the silence with something she had been meaning to ask.

"I have a question for you, and don't take this the wrong way."

Marceline raised an eyebrow. "Okay, this'll be good. Shoot."

"Did something happen recently? You seem happier today."

The vampire blinked, not expecting that. "Did I seem all grumpy before?"

"No, it's more like…you were careful, watching my reaction to things, choosing your words. Now you're more relaxed, more…" She swallowed the word 'yourself'.

"I am capable of being introspective, you know." Marceline shot her a sour look. "But, I guess I do feel a bit lighter now that I got a few of my memories back."

"Oh, you got a few of your…wait, what?!" She turned fully to face the other girl, their noses only a few inches away. "You didn't think that was important to mention…on our quest to find your memories?!"

"Uh, whoops?" She laughed and gave an apologetic smile. The princess just pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"Sometimes I can't even believe you…"

"Hey, a lot of things happened! I was getting around to it."

"Fine, so tell me what happened. What did you remember?"

"Uh, well, first you were a jerk to me. Then I was a bigger jerk to you. And then we read some books." She counted the memories off on her fingers. "That's pretty much it."

"Worst explanation ever. You do realize there could be clues in there as to who stole your memories, don't you? So, please tell me, in detail this time, and start at the beginning"

Over the next half hour, Marceline recanted her run in with Mnemonoid at LSP's trash hovel. The alien apparently had the ability to run a diagnostic scan on her brain, and it surmised that a single, strong memory had stolen and pulled other related memories along with it. That plus the fact that the theft appeared inexpertly done might narrow down their suspect list later when Bonnie had time to ruminate on it.

The vampire jokingly described Mnemonoid's wet tentacles slapping a few of her memories back together, but the way she grimaced at the end made Bonnie think it wasn't an altogether pleasant experience. She didn't comment on which specific memories she recalled, and Bonnie didn't ask. She could understand Marceline's reticence, given that she wasn't entirely prepared either to discuss that ballroom memory Jake pulled from her head.

"And that's about it I guess," she concluded. "A fun, happy day in the woods recalling traumatic experiences."

The princess patted her on the knee gently.

"Thanks for telling me. And I'm sorry. That can't have been a pleasant thing to go through."

The vampire shrugged.

"But, I'm still lost on how that converts to you feeling better today."

Marceline paused to consider for a moment.

"Well, after thinking it over and getting a bit of friendly advice, I suppose I gained some perspective. It's like, wow, some pretty messed up stuff happened in the past, but hey, we still worked out alright. So why worry over the little stuff like who I was in the past, or what's the 'normal' way for me to act? I should just focus on doing what I want to do in the present."

"You are good pretty good at doing whatever you want to do."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Marceline put her hand atop of Bonnie's. "And you should do whatever you want to do to."

"I'm fairly sure I already do that."

"In some ways, yeah. Technically I've only known you a few days, so who knows if my opinion means anything…"

"It does," she hurried to reassure her.

"Well, anyways there's helping people and taking care of business, and then there are things you do for yourself personally. It's like, imagine a pizza…"

"Half should be business, half should be personal. Yeah, you told me before."

It was cute though that she had come up with the same analogy twice.

"Oh. In conclusion then, is there anything you'd personally like to do?"

"Uh…what?"

"You've been looking a little stressed lately. I'm saying as a reward for your hard work, we should do something that you want to do."

"Uh…" Bonnie felt her eyes darting around. Was Marceline saying what she thought she was saying? Or did she mean something like 'you want to go ride the Ferris wheel?'

The vampire leaned closer to her. Her green eyes were open and honest, but her proximity was making it hard to think clearly. Holding her hand and staring at her lips probably wasn't making it easier. What did she want? Wasn't it obvious? But…but…that feeling of uncertainty welled up again.

"We just can't do that here!" She finally blurted out.

She wasn't even sure what she had been trying to say exactly, but it elicited a surprised laugh from the other girl.

"Can't do what, Bonnie?" That gentle expression was gone and replaced with an amused smirk.

"If you don't know, that's fine," she grumbled, glaring at the girl and hoping her face wasn't flushing.

"If you can't say it, do you mean…" She gasped in mock astonishment. "Princess! There are children here!"

Bonnie swatted her on the arm and amplified her glare. It was hard to be withering though when her face was red.

"I get it now though. You're saying it's fine as long as no one can see."

That was definitely not what she was saying, but before she had a chance to correct the girl, suddenly Marceline disappeared from sight. Then Bonnie felt a light pressure on her lips, just for a moment and then it was gone.

And just like that, the presence next to her on the bench was gone as well, replaced with a tinkling laughter that headed down the street.

"Break time's over, Bonnie. There's work to you, you know?"

The princess snapped her jaw shut from where it was hanging open. She could still feel the faint softness on her lips. Hesitation and desire had been warring inside her for the past few days, but one finally won out.

No, if she was getting a reward, that little bit wouldn't do at all. Marceline also needed to be taught a lesson for her little prank. With a renewed confidence, she formulated a plan.

* * *

If there was one thing Marceline liked best about supernatural flight, it was how the movement subconsciously matched her mood. When she was depressed, she would glide forward hunched over like a vengeful spirit. When she was excited, she would speed through the sky, creating eddies of wind in her wake. And right now, she was zipping back in forth in jerky little motions, unable to stay completely still in the air as she watched the princess. Her flustered face was both hilarious and sweet.

She hadn't been planning to kiss her. It was supposed to be a prank where she pressed the pads of two fingers to the girl's lips to see her reaction. But at the last moment she had changed her mind, or more like, she had acted on instinct. Acting without thinking too deeply was her modus operandi now after all.

Hopefully that didn't come back to bite her.

By now Bonnie had collected herself and was staring with a bemused expression in Marceline's direction. She rose from the bench, taking time to dust off her skirt, and slowly walked down the street with a fluid stride that made her look like a panther stalking its prey.

"Marceline," she called sweetly. "Show yourself please."

Uh oh. That motherly voice just screamed that she was in trouble. But surely they had kissed in the past before. That's what the princess had implied at least. Or had she? It was so frustrating not knowing Bonnie as well as she should.

Marceline dutifully complied though and reappeared in front of the other girl, giving her a sheepish smile. Bonnie likewise gave her a smile, although this one seemed more predatory, and without a word she grabbed Marceline's hand and dragged her into an alley.

Yep, looks like she had grossly misunderstood what was alright.

"Bonnie, look, it's uh…"

She cut off as the other girl pushed her against the wall and leaned on a forearm next to her head. Somehow, despite them being similar in height, she managed to loom.

"Marceline, you know if you're going to kiss someone, you have to do it properly. Don't tell me you forgot that too."

She felt a warm finger press under her chin and gently tilt her head back. Oh…oh! Her assumptions had been way off the mark. The intensity in the princess's eyes, the heat of her body just inches away, suddenly took on a whole new meaning. That realization did little to quell her nervousness. If anything, it doubled it. But it also washed away her disappointment and replaced it with swelling warmth in her chest.

"Let me show you," the princess continued in a low voice, leaning closer. She hesitated though as a flash of uncertainty cross her face. "May I?"

'Don't ask me,' Marceline wanted to say. This was all newer to her than it was to Bonnie. All she knew was that she certainly wasn't opposed to it.

"I said you could do whatever you wanted," she said and squeezed her eyes shut. In the darkness, she could feel her heartbeat come to life and start racing, and she could hear Bonnie's faintly as well. Time seemed to stretch as she waited for the other girl to lean closer.

"The walls have ears, but the Sewer knows!" A cackling voice interrupted her trance and sent the two of them springing away.

"Holy cram on pogo stick!" she shouted, opening her eyes and finding a third person had joined them in the alley. It was a pale, withered man wrapped in feathers.

"That's him! That's the guy that's been stalking us!" Bonnie said, clutching one hand to her heart and fishing the other around frantically in her backpack. Marceline too was holding her chest. If she had been alive, that would have given her a heart attack.

"The Sewer has eyes that has seen what you desire. Yes! Find us if you wish to find the truth!"

The scrawny creature threw a flask onto the ground, and a cloud of acrid green smoke erupted and rose up around him. When it cleared, the strange man was gone, but an open sewer grate lay were he had once stood.

Marceline turned to stare at Bonnie in disbelief, but she was already working. She had drawn a pistol arcing with blue electricity in one hand and a flashlight in the other. She knelt by the sewer grate, looking as though she was ready to dive in.

"Hold on a second." Marceline rushed over to grab her before she did so.

"No time. We have to catch him before he gets away." The princess met her eyes, sending a jolt through her, and they both looked away.

"Uh, right. But let me go first at least. Could be dangerous."

Dangerous for whom was up to question. That guy had just interrupted them, and if he didn't have something important to say, things could get messy. With that resolve, she dropped into the darkness waiting below.


	7. Chapter 7

The sewer wasn't the nicest cistern Marceline had ever had the pleasure of crawling through, but it was hardly the worst either. It had all the usual features: a narrow stone tunnel stretching far in either direction, thick brackish water slowly oozing by, and the chittering of rats in the distance. But at the same time, it was also lit by a cheery green glow emitted by some phosphorescent moss growing along the tunnel walls and floor. She didn't need the light to see, but Bonnie would surely appreciate it.

Speaking of the princess, she waved up to Bonnie, who was waiting at street level, and signaled the all-clear. A moment later a pink cannonball dropped through the opening and into Marceline's waiting arms.

"Eugh," Bonnie wrinkled her nose. "It smells foul down here…like the-time-we-got-locked-in-a-room-with-Jake-after-he-ate-six-wheels-of-cheese kind of foul. How is this not bothering you?" She gestured at Marceline's nonchalant face.

Marceline set the other girl down on the pathway that flanked the side of the tunnel and then silently gestured herself. She first moved her palms in and out from her chest and then pointed at her nose. Then…hmm, what was the gesture for 'speaking'? She knew OSL at one point, but it had been a hundred years or so since she last used it. Oh well. She shrugged and settled for moving her hands away from her mouth in a cone.

Bonnie raised an eyebrow at her charades and then slowly translated. "You're…having a heart attack, because your nose…is making you projective vomit. If so, please face that direction." She turned the vampire away from her.

Marceline slapped her forehead. "No! If I don't speak, I don't have to breathe, so I don't have to smell!"

The explanation unfortunately had cost her a deep whiff of the sewer gas. The aroma was an intoxicating bouquet of rotten eggs, expired milk, and the jockstrap of a particularly athletic and sweaty old man. Her face screwed up in disgust.

"See?"

"There, there." Bonnie patted her on the shoulder. "But if I have to suffer, we both have to suffer. Now let's find where that wizard went off to."

Marceline wasn't sure she agreed with that first line of thought, but she bent to looking for clues as to which way their strange stalker had gone. The stench of the sewer negated the possibility of tracking him by sent, and the gurgling of water was too loud to allow hearing distant footsteps. She was considering just flying down a path randomly, when Bonnie tugged on the hem of her cloak.

"Does this side seem more flattened to you? Maybe a little wetter too, like something crushed the moss recently." She pressed the sole of her boot down hard on one spot and then knelt down to run her hand over the indentation.

"Uh, maybe?" Marceline hovered close to the floor, but she wasn't seeing it. "If you think it's right though, I'm sure it is. So let's hurry before that guy gets away."

They headed off down the tunnel at a quick pace, stopping only at intersections so Bonnie could discern which way to turn. Marceline acted as the lookout, staying a few feet ahead and warding off any danger. There honestly wasn't much of that to do though, other than growling at any overly large rodents that got in their way.

The two of them were silent during the journey, which suited Marceline just fine. It kept her breathing to a minimum and gave her time to think.

And the questions for today were: what did she think of the pink-haired woman following her, and did it even matter?

Sometimes it felt like it didn't. She would get her memories back, and then *poof* her mind would be made up. She would go back to being however she was before this whole fiasco, and how she was right now wouldn't matter. It was kind of depressing in a way.

But what if that didn't happen? What if it was like the time with Mnemonoid where she remembered some things but was still very much the same person after that? Or what if she never got her memories back at all? Then it would be up to the current her to make up her mind, and that made her nervous in a wholly different way.

Normally, she put off hard decisions. A benefit of being immortal was that things would work themselves out eventually. Or die. But in this case, just saying 'See ya later!' after everything Bonnie had done probably wouldn't cut it.

She turned around in the air and floated backwards so that she could see the princess. Bonnie had her head down studying the ground and so didn't notice Marceline's gaze.

Fine, she could be mature and think things through if she had to. Where to start?

Marceline watched as Bonnie, lost in thought, tapped a finger against her lips and pushed a strand of pink hair behind her ear. Well, she was cute, definitely her type, not that appearances were that important. Or maybe they were, given that most of Ooo was filled with creatures that looked like pinecones or pizzas or the abstract representation of a Tuesday.

The princess was also fun to be with, which was surprising given she was way more serious than the people Marceline was used to dealing with. Talking with her was exciting, or sometimes…reassuring. The other woman seemed to care about what she was thinking, although Marceline could already see that arguing with Bonnie would be the worst, with her big brain and endless stubbornness.

And perhaps most importantly, Bonnie made her feel warm and secure. She…wait no, there was literally something around Marceline that was warm and securing her in place. Looking around her, the entire tunnel, from floor to ceiling, was filled with this clear, nearly invisible blob that she had backed into. She tried to move her arm, and it was like sloshing through damp, sticky jelly.

Before she had a chance to call out, the princess continued forward and plonked headfirst into the clear mass of goo. Bonnie flailed in surprise and managed to pull her face out of it, but now her hair and arms were stuck fast.

"Marceline! There's a…thing!"

"I know! I'm stuck too."

The princess craned her neck up to look at her.

"How?! You were supposed to be on lookout?"

"Uh…"

"And how are you stuck in there backwards?"

"Uhh, my butt itched?" She wiggled her hips back and forth.

"That doesn't even make any sense." Bonnie struggled more against the ooze, but all it did was submerge her deeper.

"Okay, okay! Hold on. I'll get you out."

It was impossible for Marceline to get leverage to physically push herself out of the sticky mass. The thing was like quicksand, where the more you struggled, the further it pulled you in. But fortunately for her, she didn't need to obey a little thing like physics. Instead, she willed herself to fly forward at full power, and the sticky goo slowly gave way before her, pulling away from her skin one strand at a time.

As she burst free from the ooze and hovered in the cool air, however, the gelatinous mass quivered, a dozen tentacles sprouted from its surface and lashed towards her at lightning speed. She swerved in the air, dodging one strand and then the next while trying to make her way down to Bonnie, but one of them snagged her ankle, slowing her down enough that the others could latch on as well. One wrapped around her waist, while others coiled around her arms and her legs, reaching up to her thighs and holding her spread-eagled in the air.

"Wait! I don't want to be in this kind of story!" she shouted as she struggled to break the strands.

"I'm glad you're having fun, but I'm kind of going under here," Bonnie calmly called up at her. The princess was nearly submerged now, with only her head and shoulders free.

"I'm not! It's actually really hard to break these." Whenever she slashed at them with her claws, the goo parted easily but then reformed a second later. "It's like trying to cut apart water."

"Water...that's it! One the guns in my backpack has a freeze setting. I just have to…" She struggled to pull an arm out to reach behind her, but it was hopeless. "Marceline, you'll have to get it. It's the silver one."

"I'm a little occupied here." She slashed away a tentacle, but another one wrapped around under her arms. "Ahaha, stop, that tickles…"

"Come on. All those powers and you can't get a tiny gun out of a backpack?"

"I'm trying! I just to need to...ahaha, stop...concentrate, and…"

She focused on transforming into a tentacle monster herself, but constraining the effect to only her right arm. The appendage turned black and elastic, and she stretched it down to Bonnie's backpack to fish for the gun. It took a bit of fumbling-her tentacle form was mostly made for smashing and terrorizing-but she managed to retrieve the silver pistol and reel it back to her.

"Great! Now just turn the knob to the third setting, aim, and fire," said Bonnie.

Marceline returned her arm to normal and spun the knob to ready the weapon. Its tip flared with a bluish-white light, and she took aim at the side of the beast.

"Oh how the tables have turned. Now it's your turn…to get iced."

Bonnie stared at her in bemusement.

"Please just kill it."

"Okay."

She pulled the trigger, and a beam struck the side of the creature, instantly crystallizing a five-foot section of its flesh. She kicked hard with her heel at the center of the ice and shattered it, sending a wave of ooze spewing through the broken membrane. The beast convulsed violently. No sound was made, but its thrashing shook the walls of the tunnel, raining dust and mortar down on them.

Before she could fire again, though, all of the tentacles diverted course and wrapped around her arm, forcing her aim away from the beast. If it thought it was going to win a battle of strength, though, it was sorely mistaken. She transformed that arm into her werewolf form, thick and muscular and twice its normal size. Squeezing her eyes shut, she wrenched with all her might and brought the gun back to bear on the creature. She fired.

Click.

Nothing happened. She pulled the trigger again.

Click.

Opening her palm, she saw the gun cracked and dented from where she had squeezed it too hard.

"Uh, Bonnie…" She looked down at the other girl and saw that she was now fully submerged. Even through the ooze, though, she could clearly see the other girl's look of utter incredulity.

"Well, this isn't good."

The ooze's membrane was slowly reforming; Bonnie was trapped and suffocating to death; and she was out of ideas.

This…was actually a problem, wasn't it? As the actual seriousness of the situation set in, she felt a cold chill run down her spine. How long could Bonnie hold her breath?

She started to tear at the tentacles more frantically while wracking her brain for a solution, but then she noticed Bonnie pointing to something in the center of the ooze. Her eyes followed in the direction of her hand, and there, in the center, was a small red orb no bigger than Marceline's fist. She hadn't noticed it before among all the other bits of debris floating in the ooze, but this thing seemed to gleam faintly with its own inner light.

The sudden hope set her heart racing. This had to be the heart or brain of this thing.

She allowed the tentacles holding her to pull her back in to the body of the ooze. Then once she broke the surface of the membrane, she dove deeper inside. The blob was good at pulling people in, but it didn't seem to have any ability to push someone out.

She swam easily to the red orb and pierced it with her fangs. The jelly quivered around her as she drained the color and life from the orb. Once it turned gray, the membrane around the ooze collapsed, and a wave of liquid jelly swept her down the sewer tunnel.

She found Bonnie on her hands and knees a little ways away, drenched and hacking up pieces of slime.

"Are you okay?" She knelt next to the girl and supported her with an arm around her back as she sat up.

"I'll live." Her voice was hoarse, and she leaned heavily on Marceline as she caught her breath. "Thanks."

"No, it was my fault. If I had been paying attention…"

This whole thing was caused by Marceline getting caught up in her thoughts. Hadn't she just said a while ago that she wasn't going to overthink things anymore? If she had been properly keeping a lookout, they could have just stood ten feet away, zapped the blasted thing all to ice, and been on their way.

"Well, you saved us in the end, so I'd say that makes up for it."

"Maybe, but even so, you almost drowned because of my stupidity."

She hung her head and stared at the ground, feeling guilty. But then a hard grip in her hair forced her head up so that she was looking into Bonnie's eyes.

"I don't like it when you call yourself stupid. And look, I'm totally fine, aren't I?"

It was true that now that she had caught her breath, the princess didn't look injured in any way.

"You look like a drowned rat to me," was what she said though.

The princess punched her lightly on the shoulder.

"Well you sounded like a stuck pig while those tentacles were holding you."

"I couldn't help it! I'm ticklish."

"I know."

Something about the way she said it made Marceline flush. Looking down at the other girl, she noticed for the first time that her clothes were in a precarious state. The princess's top and skirt had holes eaten through them, as though the ooze had dissolved them, and were barely held together by threads in places. She swept off her cloak and placed it around Bonnie's shoulders. Fortunately, her own clothes were in better shape, probably because she hadn't been submerged nearly as long.

"What? Oh…" Bonnie noticed her own state and pulled the cloak a little tighter. "Thanks. It's probably not the best idea for a monarch to walk around half naked."

She looked up Marceline slyly.

"Although it is just the two of us here…" She let the collar of the cloak slip a little.

Marceline coughed, realizing now that she had a wet, half-clothed woman in her arms. She stumbled to her feet and helped Bonnie up.

"Uh, well, maybe we should continue. If you're ready, that is." She pointedly tried not to stare at Bonnie's bare legs that were peeking through the gap in the cloak.

"Ah, if you insist," she said smugly.

As Marceline walked past her to take the lead again, she whispered in a low voice, "Don't push me too far. It's not like I've forgotten certain things."

They continued down the tunnel, and as they passed the ruined core of the ooze, Bonnie scooped it up and began studying it.

"I wonder what that creature was. It dissolved clothing but didn't do anything to flesh, and it's clearly not natural. This orb was made by a wizard."

"You think that strange guy we're following made it? As what, a guardian or something?"

"Who knows? Seems almost like a garbage disposal though." She deposited the orb in her bag. "Hey, if they were made by the city to clean up trash, there could be dozens of them down here. There could be another one right around the next corner for all we know."

"Don't even joke about that."

One near death experience per day was enough for Marceline.

"Well, as my dutiful protector, you'll just have you dive into each one of them if there are."

"Great."

Marceline fruitlessly tried to wring the ooze out of her t-shirt as she flew. Maybe this _was_ the worst sewer she had even been in.


	8. Chapter 8

Jake walked beside Finn down the rough streets of Wizard City, keeping a keen eye out for danger and opportunity at every turn. In a place filled with mad magicians and cracked conjurers, you never knew what kind of depraved denizens might be lurking around…

"A gift shop!" His attention snapped over to brightly colored building with tourists swarming inside it. He elbowed Finn in the side as they passed. "You wanna check it out?"

He could get a souvenir for the missus, like a super long shirt that read 'My boyfriend went to Wizard Land and all I got was this crappy t-shirt.'

"Nah, man, let's keep going," said Finn half-heartedly.

Yeah, he was right. Lady probably wouldn't like a shirt like that anyways. He should get her something classier, like a Wizard Land mug or some booze. He turned back to scanning the street for gift opportunities.

It's not like he was neglecting his duty though. With Bubblegum's radar strapped to his head, there wasn't much point in keeping a lookout for memory cores, and Finn would spot anything else suspicious looking.

He looked over at his brother, expecting to see him peering around with wide-eyed excitement or workmanlike determination, but instead Finn was staring at the ground with a pensive frown on his face.

"What's wrong, buddy? Not enjoying your wizard churro?" Jake had finished off his own sugary confection long ago, but Finn's still hung from his hand half-eaten.

"No, it _is_ magically delicious." Finn took another bite while he seemed to mull something over. "I was just thinking about the past, you know. Putting things in a new light. Do you think I've been annoying to them?"

"Yes," Jake answered instantly.

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah. Hmm. Who are we talking about exactly?"

"The princess and Marceline! Who did you think I was talking about?"

"I don't know. Everyone in general?"

Finn sighed in exasperation.

"Not helpful, dude."

"Hey, don't sweat it. Everyone's annoying sometimes."

"Yeah, like right now…" Finn shook his head and then turned his attention back to the street. "Whatever. Forget it. We've got stuff to do." He squared his shoulders and kept walking.

"Woah, hold up. I didn't expect you were taking this so seriously." He stretched his legs out so that he was walking at Finn's height and put an arm around the boy's shoulders.

"So what's this all about? I mean, PB has caused us mad trouble basically every week since we've known her." He morphed some goopy hair and a tiara on his head. "'Oh, boys, I've created a terrible monster through the power of _Science_. Go fix it before it kills us all!' Honestly, man, if she's complaining about you, she ain't got much of a leg to stand on."

He shapeshifted his legs away and hung from Finn's shoulder. His brother laughed as he stumbled under the surprise weight.

"Nah, no one's complaining. It's just…you remember when I had a crush on the princess?"

Jake refrained from making the obvious and all too easy retort and nodded his head.

"Well, now that we know she and Marceline were a thing at the time—although I guess they were mostly fighting," he said this a bit quickly as though rushing through it. "I started wondering if I had been getting in their way and how they would've felt about that."

"I don't think they particularly cared," Jake said. He wasn't quite sure where Finn was going with this. "Although I suppose if someone kept making passes at Lady, I could get a bit upset."

"Right? And you guys are my best friends, so I kind of care what you guys think. So when I remember some of the things that I did…"

His eyes locked into a faraway stare as he recalled memories.

"Stealing her hair, throwing tantrums, creating a life-sized replica out of Big League Chew and Twizzlers…"

"Wait, when did that happen?!"

"What if the whole time they were really like, 'Ugh, there's that kid again. Why can't he take a hint and just go die?'"

Jake swore he could see Finn's eyes turn into swirling pools of darkness as he imagined the other things they might be saying.

"So now I'm like, pop open that memory vault." Finn had a rictus smile on his face. "And shove those bad things _deep down inside_." He pantomimed forcing something downwards with great effort.

"Dude…" Jake wasn't sure what to say. "That's pretty dark, but…are you trying to be a doofus?"

"What?" Finn looked over at him surprised.

It was honestly so ridiculous that it was kind of making Jake mad.

"One, you were like ten at the time. If any adult was talking about you like that, I would've whooped their butts. Vampire or no, I don't care. And two, no one ever did think something like that."

"You think so?"

"I know so. I mean, it can't be helped that you did some weird stuff, but everyone does. If I had to repress every memory of dumb stuff I did, I wouldn't know anything."

"Heh, yeah."

"Rude. Anyways, you've done way more awesome stuff for those girls. Remember the door lord? That elemental craziness? In fact, those girls probably needed a push. They've been hanging around for whatever ungodly amount of time they've known each other, but only now they get together? Coincidence?"

He waggled his eyebrows.

"Probably," Finn said, but the light had returned to his eyes.

"Maybe, but…" _Beep! Beep! Beep!_ The stupid radar on his head gave off a shrill alarm, interrupting him. He fumbled for a button on its side to turn it off. A man was trying to have an important conversation here!

"Jake…that's the signal for a memory core!"

The two of them looked up and saw that they were standing before a storefront. The signage read 'Glassglow's Memory Emporium.'

"Oh…we probably should have seen that coming."

* * *

The inside of the store was shelf upon shelf of glimmering baubles, a hundred or more memory cores each resting upon a velvet cushion. The orbs were all uniform in size and shape, but that's where their similarities ended. Some barely glowed while other shone brightly, casting stark shadows across the room. Most had smooth glassy surfaces, but a few were spider-webbed with cracks. And of course, each held a different black shape inside that seemed to twist and morph as Finn looked at it.

"The farm was struggling that year," a wheezy voice muttered from further back in the store. "The grumples had burrowed into the pumplesnatch, picked 'em clean to the bone. The rains weren't coming neither."

Finn followed the sound of the voice and found a heavyset man in the back hunched over a counter, his face shrouded by his thick, unruly hair and beard.

"Hello?" called Finn.

The man slowly turned his head and stared in Finn's direction. His bloodshot eyes didn't appear to see him though as he continued his murmuring.

"And the mayor took an interest in sweet Mary Moo. Poor thing barely a dozen summers old. The hound didn't let us have a moment's peace."

"Okay…"

Maybe this was a self-serve store. He could just leave this 'interesting' old man alone and go look at the memory cores himself. Just as he was starting to back away, the bearded man fell silent and raised a wand to the side of his head. Without a flash of light or any other fanfare, a memory orb rolled effortlessly out of his noggin and plonked down onto the table.

The man's eyes rolled into focus, and as they settled on Finn, a wide smile formed on the man's face.

"Ah, hello there. You here to buy or sell?" The man's voice was deep and smooth, unlike the rural dialect from before.

"Uh, buy, maybe? I honestly don't know what I'm looking at here. Are all these memories yours?"

"If you mean do I own them, then yes. But if you're asking are they my memories, then no." His smile widened.

"I'm getting a real creepy vibe here, man." Jake came up behind Finn and whispered in his ear. "Like 'old guy that locks you in his basement and only feeds you coleslaw in a bucket' kind of vibe."

"I assure you I'm completely harmless…Jake and Finn."

"Eep!" Jake ducked behind Finn. "Let's get out of here, dude."

"How do you know who we are?" Finn rested his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"How? Because you told me."

He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a memory core which he set before them. Cautiously, Finn took it and gazed into its inky shape. The black symbol expanded and resolved itself into a scene of the inside of the store, showing him and Jake talking with the old man.

* * *

"Ah, hello there. I'm Glassglow. You here to buy or sell?"

"Uh, buy, maybe? I'm Finn and this is Jake, by the way. So what am I looking at here? Are all these memories yours?"

"In a way, yes. Customers have chosen to sell them to me, and I pass them on to eager buyers."

"Hmm." Jake peered around suspiciously. "You're telling me this many people decided they didn't need their memories anymore? You sure some of these weren't _acquired_ some other way?"

Glassglow's eyes narrowed, and his beard seemed to shift into a frown.

"I'm not sure what you're implying, but I extract one very precise memory from each person. I hardly remove everything."

"Yeah? Then prove it."

The man raised an eyebrow before shrugging and leaning towards them with his wand outstretched.

"Well…if you insist."

* * *

"Alright, to be fair. I probably should have expected that," said Jake. "Still a jerk move."

For Finn's part, the existence of the memory was unnerving. When did it fit in exactly? Everything felt so seamless without it.

"Sorry, sorry. Just a bit of fun on my part. As compensation, how about I let you take one of these memories for free?"

He ran a finger along one of the shelves, scanning each orb until he plucked one from its pillow.

"Ah, this one has needed a new home for a while. It gets tiresome to restore the same memory over and over again, you understand."

He held out the orb to Finn, who stared at it dubiously. It was fairly dim and was starting to show cracks.

"I don't really need a random memory. We're looking for information about our friend."

"Sure, I'll answer your questions too. But please, I'd feel terrible if I didn't give you something first."

He clasped Finn's hands around the orb and pushed it up to his eye level. The memory expanded, and Finn felt himself begin to be drawn into it.

"What is it?"

"Oh, just the Wizard City Wet T-Shirt Contest of '29."

* * *

"Welcome back everyone! You're watching the third annual Wizard City Wet T-Shirt Contest, and we've got a great line-up today, don't we Bob?"

"That's right, Jim." The two announcers sat at a booth with microphones before them. "The contestants have really upped their game this year and are pulling out all the stops in order to show their stuff."

"Who do we have up next, Bob?"

"This next contestant is a real fixture in the community, although I would struggle to say fan favorite. In fact, every year as we approach this point I find myself longing ever more for the sweet embrace of death."

"Me too, Bob. Me too."

The lights dimmed, colored spotlights turned on, and music began to play.

"But this is my job so…Hailing from the frigid north! An icy beauty that will freeze your heart and chill your soul! The frozen thunder from down under…Ice King!"

Ice King strode into the arena, clad only in a white t-shirt tied off above his stomach and loincloth, both soaking wet.

* * *

Finn threw the orb onto the ground where it shattered into a thousand pieces. Glassglow was doubled over, holding his stomach and wheezing in laughter. Finn gripped his sword, ready to go weed-whacker on this whole store, while Jake looked on in confusion.

"Now you know how I feel having to restore that so many times," the wizard laughed.

"Look you…you…just tell us if you have any memories of Marceline." Finn gritted his teeth to remain calm. "She's a vampire. Should be pretty obvious."

"Of a vampire? Nope. Can't say that I do."

Finn felt a blood vessel throb in his forehead.

"Do you know anyone _else_ who might have it? Are there any other people who deal in memories?"

"Yeah, and what's this 'restoring' you keep talking about?" Jake added.

"Hmm, the restoring part is easy to answer. The memories break down when they're outside of a person, and quickly. To fix them up, I pop 'em back in my head for a bit and extract a new memory core. As far as other memory dealers through, no one else is running a business, I can tell you that. Not really a big industry."

"There have to be some people that use memory cores though. Surely you know someone. What about your customers?"

"That'd be like half the town," the wizard said, waving his hand dismissively. "No way to narrow it down."

"Please, any names are fine."

Finn stared Glassglow in the eyes and tried to convey his seriousness. Eventually the older man sighed and looked away.

"Ah, fine, kid. I'll think about it. Give me some time to put together a list. I can't promise you it'll be useful though."

"Yes! Thank you."

"Nice job, dude." Jake gave him a high-five.

"Now get out of here if you're not going to buy something." The shopkeeper waved them out of the store.

Once outside, Finn felt for the first time the enormity of their task. Those memories could be anywhere. They had some sort of lead, sure, but it was a tenuous one that maybe wouldn't pan out. Even worse, the old man had said that memories break down quickly outside of a person, so they didn't have much time.

"Hopefully the girls are having better luck than we are," he said.

"Well, if nothing else, they certainly aren't gonna run into a wizard as crazy as that one."


	9. Chapter 9

_Note: Two chapters posted. Don't miss the previous one._

* * *

Marceline heaved a sigh of relief upon reaching their destination without any further impediments, amoebic or otherwise. Instead, they had safely arrived at what looked to be a building recessed into the sewer wall. The stone structure was windowless with a single open doorway covered by a curtain of beads. Twin braziers of flickering green flame flanked the sides of the door, and painted above it were three unblinking eyes staring down at her.

The ambiance was mildly ominous, but it was practically a spring meadow compared to some of the things she'd seen. She confidently floated before the door and called out.

"Hey! Are you in there, creep…crafty wizard dude?"

She caught herself at the last moment before blurting out something rude. She could play nice at first. No harm in trying to do this the easy way. Then, if the guy turned out to be uncooperative, well, there were other, more fun ways of getting someone to talk. She flexed her claws and felt a smile form on her face.

After a moment of silence, a rickety old voice answered, "Yes, we've been expecting you. Come in."

The curtain of beads pulled to the side, showing a dim, smoky interior.

"Looks like we're in the right place," she said to the princess at her side. Bonnie's amused expression from their banter earlier was gone, replaced with calm, intent gaze. It was her business face Marceline had seen her use during important royal duties.

"Keep your eyes open," she said as she stepped into the dark building before Marceline could stop her.

What was the point in having a nigh-indestructible vampire at your side if you didn't let her step into danger first? She quickly followed inside, almost bumping into Bonnie, who had paused just inside the doorway. She was studying the bead curtain with a frown on her face.

"Something wrong?"

"Maybe." She shrugged. "Let's keep going."

That wasn't exactly an answer, but Marceline's attention was soon drawn to the gallery of esoteric items filling the interior of the building. The space was cluttered with wooden bookshelves holding things like fanged skulls, embalmed body parts floating in jars, and boxes engraved with mystic symbols.

The place had the creepy magic vibe down pat, if that's what it was going for, but the number of candles openly burning on wooden shelves seemed like a terrible fire hazard. Wasn't sewer gas supposed to be flammable too? It was amazing this person was still alive.

"Enter further, seekers of truth," the voice called again from further inside.

Marceline grabbed the princess's hand—she was now studying the ceiling for some reason—and led them winding through the aisles until they reached the back of the shop. There they found a round table set with a crystal ball in the center and that pale, spindly man on the far side.

"The Sewer greets you. Please," he gestured to the two chairs on their side of the table. No sooner had they sat than the ding of an egg timer went off, and the man retrieved a pot of tea.

"The spirits spoke of your arrival at this time." He cackled, pouring them each a cup.

"Is that so?" Bonnie dipped a finger into her cup. "Did the spirits also tell you to make the tea cold?"

"Eh? Well, it's…cold-steeped tea. Uh, brewed with flowers from beyond the grave!"

"Hmm, interesting." Her expression seemed to say it was anything but.

Marceline leaned up against her and whispered, "Maybe exnay on the udenessray. For now, at least."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow but kept her mouth shut.

"So, you said you had information for us? Something about ears and eyes and the truth," Marceline said to the wizard.

"Yes, the Sewer sees many things…"

"Likely a lot of poop and abandoned goldfish," Bonnie whispered, shrugging when Marceline glared at her.

"…and we have seen that you are troubled," the man continued, heedless of the interruption. "We can divine more now that you are here. Clear your mind and focus on accepting what the spirits reveal."

He waved his hands about the crystal ball and a faint light emanated from within.

"Hmm, we see an older figure. Someone important to you, perhaps?"

"Are you seeing Simon? What does he look like?" Marceline leaned forward, listening a bit more intently.

"The visions only come in hints of shape and color. You must search yourself to know who it be. Has this person has been unwell at times or…"

"Yes! Simon is…well there's a lot of things wrong with him. But what does he have to do with my lost memories?"

"Memories? Oh, uh well…this person is close to you, like a father-figure or an uncle, and uh…" There was a rustling sound as the man looked down at something in his lap.

"Oh, for glob's sake!" Bonnie stood up abruptly, marched around the table, and snatched a book off of the wizard's lap.

"My book!" The scrawny man flailed for it, but Bonnie held it out of reach. "Return the sacred text!"

The book was bound in red leather and had the three-eyed symbol embossed on the front. However, when Bonnie peeled that cover away, a different one lay underneath, with normal writing and a picture of a smiling business man.

"Theodore Tampersan's Cold Reading for Dummies," the princess read aloud, causing the pale man to freeze. "What's this supposed to be?"

"It's a…highly arcane…"

"It's a book on mentalism. You aren't even a real wizard, are you?"

"No, I am! I mean, we are. This is just a tome to assist me."

"Right. A wizard that uses a pull string to pull aside a curtain, and a speaker in the ceiling to project their voice. That's some magic you got there."

Marceline felt her face flush, remembering how intently she had listened to what this con was spewing. Then she felt that embarrassment turn into anger as she thought about how he had used her concern for Simon.

She rose from her chair and stalked over to the fake wizard, a low growl building in her throat. When he looked up at her, she gripped his face in one hand, her sharp nails dimpling his cheeks. She saw his pupils dilate and his pale skin blanched further as he gazed upon her face.

"You have about ten seconds to tell us why you tried to trick us." Her grip tightened.

"Please! Please, wait! I am a wizard. I promise. I just needed to make money!" He closed his eyes and started trembling. "I'm sorry. Please don't kill me."

Marceline sighed and let her hand relax. The wizard fell back in his chair.

"No one's going to kill you."

"Speak for yourself." Surprisingly, the princess seemed as angry than she had been. "So why us? We seemed like convenient marks?"

"Y-you seemed to be searching for something," the man's voice still shook slightly. "And that's what I do. I can find lost keys, a pet that ran away. I'm a seer. I swear."

Bonnie didn't seem satisfied with that answer and loomed over him.

"Then why not just say that? Why trick us into following you down into the sewer with all this hocus pocus make-believe?"

"It's because…because…" The man started trembling again and buried his face in his hands. "I filled out my application wrong!"

He started full-on crying.

"…What?" said Bonnie.

Marceline too was at a loss for words.

"I, I went to register with the bureau of wizardry, you know, as a new wizard. But when I went to pick my domain from the list…!" He choked up again. "I checked the wrong box! I marked 'sewer' instead of 'seer'!"

His sobs echoed in the otherwise silent room.

"That's…hold on. I still don't understand," said Marceline.

"Now I have to call myself Sewer Wizard. I'm not even legally allowed to leave the sewer. That's why I have to sneak around and lure customers here. But no one is going to go into a sewer to just find their keys. They want big stuff like seeing the future or talking to the dead or finding true love."

"Hence the charade," Marceline finished for him. She turned towards Bonnie. "Honestly, I feel a little bad for the guy now. Maybe we can help him."

"What? Not interested. It's his mistake, and it's no excuse for deceiving other people." The princess glared again at the man for good measure. Surprisingly, Bonnie wasn't cooling off at all.

"Yeah, but look how pathetic he is. He's like a little baby alligator someone flushed down the toilet."

From the way Bonnie scowled at him, it seemed she viewed him as something _else_ you'd flush down the toilet. But then she looked over at Marceline and sighed in defeat.

"Fine, let's get this over with. We're going to see the Grand Master Wizard. Meet me outside when you're ready."

She headed out the door without further comment, and Marceline flew after her. She found the princess with her back turned and her posture tense.

"Hey, you okay?" Marceline asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. Holding a grudge over something this small was unlike her.

"I'm fine," she said without turning to look at her. "You're the one who has a problem."

Marceline blinked.

"Wait, are you mad at _me_?"

She wracked her brains, but she couldn't think of anything she had done. Recently that is. The princess turned to face her from only a few inches away, and her expression was…not angry exactly, but difficult to read.

"I'm bothered because you don't doubt people."

"Uh, isn't that a good thing?"

"No. It just means you let them deceive you."

"I don't think I _let_ people do it," she said. If someone tricks you, it's just something that happens. "Besides, I'm a tough gal. I'll be alright either way."

"Tough, right. So tough that you lost your memories and don't even know why."

Marceline's eyes widened. The accusation stung like Bonnie had slapped her.

"Are you saying it's my fault I lost my memory?"

"No." Bonnie grabbed her arm as she tried to float backwards. "That's not what I meant."

But even if Bonnie denied it, it made sense. It was highly possible this whole mess was caused by her own stupidity. Marceline had even considered it, but if Bonnie was thinking it too…

She grimaced and averted her eyes. No wonder Bonnie would be pissed. She caused all these problems, and then she still didn't learn from it and was getting fooled again. It was surprising the princess hadn't gotten fed up with her and left already. She thought of doing this alone as Bonnie walked away. It was like a needle digging into her heart.

"I know I've caused you a lot of trouble, and I'm sorry for that," she said weakly. "You have every right to be mad, but please-"

"Marceline," Bonnie cut her off. The way she called her name made her look back up. "I don't care if you cause me trouble. I know you're vulnerable like the rest of us. It's just…when I'm not there and I can't see you…"

She rested her head on Marceline's chest and said the last part quietly.

"I worry. I can't help it. I need you to be safe."

"Oh."

It had turned around so fast that her brain wasn't able to keep up with her heart. All she could do was put her arms around the princess. She felt her warmth, and honestly Marceline was the one who felt comforted.

Only Simon would fuss over her and treat her like someone who needed concern, but now…

"Oh, what?" She felt a dampness on her cheek, and Bonnie looked up as she shifted to wipe it away. "Aha, sorry, I don't know why."

She wasn't sad, but she couldn't get the occasional tears to stop. The other girl smiled gently and ran her thumb over Marceline's eyelashes, wiping the moisture away. She felt like she should say something, do something, but she was captivated just looking down into Bonnie's eyes.

"All set!" a raspy voice called from behind her, breaking the spell and causing them to pull away.

As they broke apart, Bonnie shot her a knowing look.

"Still want to forgive him?"

Marceline laughed, her heart still hammering in her chest. "I'll give him a second chance. Third chance I guess now."

She led the way, and they headed out of the sewer.

* * *

Their time with the Grand Master Wizard was fortunately brief. No one had actually kept Sewer Wizard's job application—"We're wizards, not bureaucrats," they had claimed—so there was no proof that he had filled it out one way or another. Annoyed but unwilling to argue about it with Bonnie forever, the Grand Master Wizard let the man fill out a new application, and now he was officially dubbed Seer Wizard.

Did the guy even have a regular name? Bonnie wasn't sure and didn't particularly care. While her time together with Marceline today hadn't been entirely fruitless, it certainly hadn't gotten them any closer to their overall goal.

"Thank you so much," Seer said as they stood outside in the city square. "Being able to walk freely in the light of day. You have no idea how much this all means to me."

"Yeah, don't mention it."

"You're welcome is what she means," Marceline added from by her side.

"I wish there was something I could do to repay you. You were looking for something, weren't you? Perhaps I could do a real divination."

"Maybe, but it's a bit more abstract than keys or a cat. I lost some of my memories. Think you can find something like that?"

"Uh, probably not." He paused to think a bit. "At least, not in the past. But I have spent six years living in a sewer. My wife left me, my only company has been rats, and I've survived off of eating discarded tofu kebabs and candied apples—cause they float real well. So maybe my powers have gotten a lot stronger. It's worth a shot!" he said cheerfully, as she and Marceline looked on in pity.

"Well, I guess it can't hurt."

The wizard and Marceline sat together on a bench, and he placed his crystal ball between them.

"Okay, hold onto this and concentrate on what you seek. Here we go." He closed his eyes, and the ball started to hum with energy. "I think it's working!"

A golden light filled the area, and the temperature dropped precipitously, enough that Bonnie could see her breath misting in front of her face.

"Wait, should it be going crazy like this?" Marceline said. The crystal ball had started vibrating violently, and only her vicelike grip kept it from flying out of their hands.

"I-I don't think so!" Seer said as he was jounced around by the orb.

Music began to play, sharp pure notes like from a synthesizer. The notes seemed to form into a melody, rising in volume until there was a deafening crack. A rent tore down the center of the crystal ball, and the light, the chill, and the music all ceased at once.

In the silence that was left, there was only the curious smell of fish, wafting in the air.


	10. Chapter 10

By the time Marceline and her friends returned to the Candy Kingdom, the sky was dark, and she was exhausted. She and Bonnie had traveled the breadth of Wizard City for hours more after finishing with Seer, all while under a glaring sun, and it had worn on her. Why couldn't such places be open at a decent hour like midnight? Or be built underground? She shook her head at the self-centeredness of diurnal people.

It was hard to tell how the princess was doing. She walked a short way behind them, seemingly lost in thought and occasionally muttering to herself, but Finn and Jake were practically bubbling with energy. She narrowed her eyes at the souvenirs they were laden with: foam wizard hats, commemorative t-shirts, and a huge sack of goods slung over Jake's shoulder. At least some people were enjoying themselves while she and Bonnie trudged through the sewers.

The group passed under the great wall of cake and icing that surrounded the city and made their way through the streets to the castle proper. As they neared the entrance, a figure descended from above, ambushing them.

"Hey, you guys!" A flapping white beard, a billowing blue robe, and a gleaming gold crown settled down before them. "You've been gone a while. Not that I stayed here the whole day to wait, but if I did…I would know."

"Simon! What are you doing here?" She flew up next to her old friend.

"Oh, you know, thought you guys might want to jam." The Ice King reached behind him into his robes and pulled a keyboard out of…somewhere.

"Oh. Sorry. We're kind of pressed for time right now." She felt bad sending him off, but this really wasn't the time for that.

"Yeah, dude, we're on super important business," Jake added. "Here's a mug though." He reached into his sack and tossed one to the Ice King. As he turned over the mug and read it, his beard stood up on end.

"What?! You went to Wizard Land without me? But that's like my turf. We've got to go back so I can show you all the cool places, like this shop that gives out free scraps of old bread!"

"Uh, that's alright." Jake backed away as Ice King excitedly approached him.

"Look, we really don't have time for this." Bonnie stepped up to intervene. "Banana guards, escort him home please." The two guards that were beside the castle door saluted and took both of his arms, dragging him away.

"Bye, Simon!" Marceline waved as he disappeared into the distance.

"Now that that distraction is gone, let's get back to work. First order of business though…" Bonnie lifted her arms and looked over the grime on her clothes. "…is taking a bath."

The two of them hadn't emerged from the sewer exactly smelling like roses. The boys, once they learned the story, had found the whole ordeal hilarious.

"Yeah. It's going to be a pain heading back home though," she sighed. The trip to her cabin wasn't short, even with flight, but there was no use putting it off. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" She hesitated a moment. Giving the princess a hug goodbye while covered in cytoplasm probably wasn't the best idea. She settled on a small wave instead as she backed away. The other girl, however, grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"What are you talking about? You can use bath here." Bonnie raised an eyebrow at her surprised look. "You guys are fine spending the night here too, right?" She turned to Finn and Jake.

"Sure."

"Why not?"

"Ooh, I love slumber parties!" An excited voice came from behind them. They turned to see the Ice King standing there, as his former captors raced towards him, out of breath. "Oh, but I forgot to bring my pillow. And who will feed poor Gunter while I'm gone?"

The guards dove for him, but he dodged nimbly away from their uncoordinated attacks. Bonnie sighed at the pitiful display.

"Finn. Jake. Would you mind?"

"You got it, princess," said Finn, and the two of them raced off to join the fray.

Seeming to consider that settled, Bonnie opened the door to the castle and ushered her inside. From the courtyard behind them, Marceline could hear shouts of "Why is he so slippery?" and "What do you mean its penguin milk?", but they were blocked out as the door swung shut. Once the two of them were alone together, Bonnie sighed exhaustedly and seemed to wobble on her feet.

"Woah! You okay?" Marceline caught her elbow and steadied her.

"Yeah, fine." She favored Marceline with a small smile as she stood upright.

"Sorry about Simon. He means well, but listening isn't exactly his strong suit."

"I know," the princess chuckled. "But it's not that, it's just…there's a lot to do. Anyways, you can head to the bath first. You know where it…" She paused for a split second. "I'll show you."

She turned and strode down the hallway without further comment, piquing Marceline curiosity. Had something run through her head to cause that? A memory perhaps? She flew up next to Bonnie.

"So I've stayed over before, huh?"

"Yeah." Marceline waited as they walked in silence, but the princess didn't offer elaboration.

"Uh, okay. So, where's this bath at? It's not some sort of communal thing I'm going to have to share with the banana guards, is it?"

"No, it's in my bedroom." Bonnie said this naturally, but Marceline could see that her skin had turned a slightly brighter shade of pink. Now she was definitely curious.

"Wonder what happened last time I was here then. Probably something very wholesome."

The princess glared at her out of the corner of her eye but kept walking.

"No, I'm serious. I just want to know a bit more about you. Was it a late-night study session or some aerobic workout? Am I close?" Maybe it was because she was exhausted, or maybe it was because Bonnie was the one being embarrassed for once, but the words flowed easily out of her.

"Sure, enjoy your teasing. Just remember that you were there as well, with…whatever it is you're talking about."

"No, no, that was a different Marceline. I'm just an innocent bystander."

Bonnie was quiet for a moment as they approached a large pink door at the end of the hallway. From the level of security—heavy bolts barred the door and a computer screen sat beside it—Marceline assumed that these were the princess's quarters.

"Give me your hand for a second." Bonnie held her hand and pressed it flat against the screen. A light ran over it from underneath, and the bolts retracted with a hiss, letting the door swing open.

"You may believe that." Bonnie held her hand a moment longer and looked into her eyes. "But you're the same to me."

Her touch and the honesty in her voice made Marceline's heart speed up. Great, was she the one blushing now?

"Heh," the princess snorted as she brushed past Marceline into the room. "See how you like it." She turned back with a cunning smile on her face. "Now go. I don't need you tracking grime all over my carpet."

"What? I'm not even walking."

"Fine, then I don't need you effervescing in my air."

With a push, she sent Marceline into a pink tiled room. The tub and shower stood at one end, ringed with numerous bottles of sweet-smelling liquid.

"I feel kind of bad going first and making you wait." Bonnie was probably as eager for a bath as she was. A wicked thought crossed her mind. "How about you come in as well? I'll turn invisible. You won't even know I'm there." She grinned, baring her fangs.

She could see the other girl freeze for a moment and then step into the room with a serious expression on her face. Wait a minute. She backed up towards the tub, but then Bonnie grabbed a towel from the nearby linen closet and tossed it at her head.

"Careful making offers you're not prepared to keep." She turned and walked out of the room. "Now hurry up, and let me know when you're done."

* * *

Heading down the halls to her lab, Bonnie fanned her face to cool down. More and more, Marceline was acting like her old incorrigible self. Things had felt so familiar between them after spending the day together, in fact, that for a moment she had forgotten their situation. Hence the slip up earlier. While that familiarity felt nice, being complacent was a trap. She needed to keep her mind on their goal: recover the memories before time runs out.

She nodded to the pair of banana guards standing outside the laboratory door. "Any disturbances while I was gone?"

"No, ma'am. We heard a real loud noise from inside the lab, but it didn't disturb us at all."

"…Great. Keep up the good work."

"Will do!" They saluted as she headed into the room.

When she had left this room the day before, two memory orbs contained in glass cases had rested upon her workbench. Now, only one remained. It wasn't an unexpected result, not after Finn and Jake had described what they learned from the man at the memory shop, but it was depressing nonetheless.

She approached the bench and looked over her equipment. The cases were still intact, showing no signs of tampering. The spectrometer was still working, occasionally scribbling another measurement down on a long sheet of printouts.

She gathered up the papers, looking over the luminosity values recorded throughout the day. It seemed that between the 3:35 and 3:37 readings, the luminosity of Jake's memory had reached zero, and presumably it had imploded right out of existence, creating the noise the guards heard.

Her own memory orb was still there, and while it had grown dimmer, it was decreasing at a significantly slower rate. A hopeful sign. If the lifetime of a memory was proportional to its strength, they might still have time.

She copied the hourly readings from the spectrometer onto another sheet of paper. The decline appeared to be approximately linear. She scratched out a quick calculation of the rate. A proper regression could be done later, if she had enough time. For now, she estimated this memory would persist for another 80 hours, making its total lifespan around 92 hours based on the fact that it was made the previous evening.

Four days.

Assuming Marceline's memories were similar to her own, that's how long they would last. But it had already been two days since they first discovered her memory loss during that unfortunate encounter at her cabin, and the actual memory loss event must have occurred some time before that.

One day.

That was how much time they probably had left. Perhaps it was already too late. There was no value in thinking that though. All she could do was keep going. She would take a brief break to get clean and then start again.

Analyze the clues left by Seer, review the list of suspects, improve the range on the memdar, create tomorrow's plan of action, perhaps interview Marceline to see if she recalled anything…

Her vision swam for a moment, and she leaned heavily on the workbench. Stress and a lack of sleep were catching up to her. No one else seemed to appreciate the urgency of the situation.

She knew on some level it was stupid. Marceline seemed happy enough as she was now, and she was still the same person. She wasn't dying or leaving or anything for her to be so upset about. In time perhaps, the two of them could even have the same relationship that they used to. Marceline was clearly attracted to her, although attraction was different from…well…love.

But if she could be selfish for once, she really wanted her to remember. There was a part inside of her—the centuries they had spent connected to one another—that other people didn't know or understand. She wanted to be able to share that again and feel that as most things changed, this didn't.

Bonnie straightened up, feeling new resolve in her spine. Another sleepless night was nothing. She wouldn't regret the pain of struggling but the ease of giving up.

She exited the lab, figuring Marceline was surely done by now, when suddenly a voice came over the loudspeaker.

"Woah, this place has a PA system? Neat." Though staticky, the vampire's voice was unmistakable. "Hey, banana guards! This is your supreme leader. I command you to…do the hokey pokey!"

The two guards next to her looked confusedly between her and the speakers and then slowly started to do the hokey pokey.

"Stop. I'm right here, so I clearly didn't order that."

"Oh." They froze in the middle of shaking their right leg all about. "We thought maybe you recorded it."

"Why would I do that? The voice doesn't even sound like me."

"Does it?"

"I kind of think it does," the second one added.

She sighed. This was why the Candy Kingdom kept getting attacked.

"Now it's time for 'Princess Says'," Marceline continued. "Princess says: scream at the top of your lungs."

Bonnie heard the warbling shouts of banana guards echoing down the hallways and slapped a hand to her face. She turned and stared at the guard next to her who was slowly opening his mouth to join in.

"Unbelievable. Just stay here while I go deal with this."

* * *

Marceline sat innocently on the edge of the princess's bed with her hands folder in her lap, while Bonnie faced her with her hands on her hips.

"I hope you're having a good time," the princess said.

"Do you mean my announcements? I was only trying to let you know I was done." She blinked up at Bonnie with wide eyes. "And see? You got my message."

"Right. So helpful. Well, try to keep your hands to yourself while I'm in the shower." She rolled her eyes as a grin spread on Marceline's face. "You know what I mean."

Marceline watched her close the door to the bath behind her and heard the water start running. She flopped back onto the bed with a sigh.

It was a bit strange being in this room. It certainly wasn't what she had expected from the tough and logical exterior of the princess. There was a cute cat clock on the wall above the bed, its tail swishing back and forth in time. And while the room was clean, it certainly wasn't perfect. The occasionally shirt or unpaired sock littered the floor. One of them even looked suspiciously like hers.

There was a whole collage of decorations pinned up above her desk as well. Some seemed scientific in nature, but there were also photos of friends, a shot of them at them beach, and even a show card for the Scream Queens, much to her embarrassment.

All in all, it spoke of a side of Bonnie she didn't know yet. That wasn't unreasonable given there was a lot she didn't know right now, but it made her a bit uncertain. What was the right way to act? What was the right thing to do? All she could do was trust in Finn's advice and simply do what she could to help Bonnie. That was something she wouldn't regret.

She rolled over on the bed and took a deep whiff of the pillow. That was another thing that was driving her crazy. To her heightened sense of smell, this whole room smelled like her, even the white and pink flannel pajamas she was wearing now. Being in the sewer was rough, but there she could stop breathing. With this, it was tough not to. The scent felt familiar and soothing though. Breathing slowly and listening to the drone of the water, she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Marceline awoke to the sound of a pen scratching on paper. She blinked her eyes open blearily to see Bonnie working at her desk, a shawl draped over her shoulders. It still appeared to be night. The windows were dark, and the only illumination in the room was a small lamp atop the desk. Something nagged at her that that wasn't why she had awoken though.

There! Her pointed ears twitched as she heard the faint noise again, something from outside on the balcony. She rose silently from the bed and floated over to the glass door that led from the bedroom to a balcony. Seeing through the stained glass was impossible, but if she pressed her ear to it she could hear…

"Just say, 'Hey, you ladies looking for a good time?'. No, no, that sounds dumb. What about…"

Marceline pulled open the door, no longer on guard.

"Simon, what are you doing?" The Ice King was standing there with a pillow and box under one arm and a penguin under the other.

"Well, I know you guys were worried I wasn't ready for a sleepover, but I'm back and all set!" He dumped his pillow and the penguin—which landed with a 'wenk'—on the ground and held out the box. "I even brought a board game. It's Monopoly." He leaned in to whisper to her as Bonnie rose from her desk and approached. "I thought Candy Land might be too on the nose."

"Aw, thanks. I appreciate the thought, but we're still kind of busy." She grimaced as soon as those words were out of her mouth, seeing as she had fallen asleep and Bonnie was the only one who was actually working.

"Maybe some other time," said Bonnie distractedly. Her mind seemed to be half here and half on what she had been working on. "Honestly, none of the clues from that seer's reading make any sense. They just…" She trailed off as she narrowed her eyes at the Ice King. Looking him up and down, she leaned in closer and started to sniff him. "You smell like fish." She grabbed his arm and held two fingers to his wrist. "Cold as well, obviously."

"Oh ho, I haven't gotten this kind of attention since I spilled chili on myself in the Hot Dog Kingdom!" He squirmed bashfully.

"A gold light, gold crown. The music doesn't fit exactly, unless you count his keyboard, but…" She stepped back and regarded him severely. "Ice King, what do you know about Marceline's memory loss?"

"What? You can think he's responsible," said Marceline. The idea was just absurd.

"Yeah! Wait, what are talking about?" The Ice King scratched his head.

"Marceline lost some of her memories recently. Certain signs currently point towards you being involved. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

"Hmm?" He looked between the two of them in confusion. "Wait, are you guys mad at me?"

"No, not at all," she reassured him. "Come on, Bonnie. He wouldn't do anything to hurt me."

"But he could have easily done something without meaning to." Her expression didn't soften.

"Hmph, that's some treatment. I don't get invited to the amusement park or your sleepover. And none of you even responded to my invitation to my karaoke party!"

He fished a small blue card out of his beard and thrust it in front of Bonnie's face. Written in crayon, it said 'Invitation to Karaoke (mark one): [] Yes, [] Definitely, [] No but I love the Ice King'. As he did, a few more cards fell out onto the floor.

"Wha? Gunter you were supposed to mail these."

"Wenk."

"Gunter! I can't believe it."

"Wenk."

"Aw, you were jealous? That's so sweet. Come here, little Gunty!" He scooped up the penguin in his arms and hugged it.

"See? This is what you're suspecting?" Marceline gestured to the Ice King. "Sorry for missing your party, Simon. I'll make it up to you later." She patted him on the back.

"Hmm? You were there."

She blinked at him. "What?"

"At the party a few days ago. You were the only one who showed up since I told you in person."

"Uh…" She wracked her brain, but she had no memory of that. What happened three nights ago was a blur.

"Me and Gunter even took a picture once you fell asleep. See? We crowned you the Karaoke Queen!" He held up a selfie showing them two of them by her side as she floated in the air asleep. The Ice King's crown was place upon her head.

"Uh oh…" she said, as it started to dawn on her what had happened. The sound of a gun cocking broke her out of her reverie, and she spun around to see Bonnie with a furious expression on her face.

"Woah! Let's hold on here!" She rushed over to grab Bonnie's arms before she did anything rash.

"All this time, all this work, and there wasn't even a reason for it! You're just an imbecile!" She struggled against Marceline's grip.

"Calm down, Bonnie. Let's talk this over."

"No, let me shoot him once or twice!"

"That's not going to help."

"It'll make me feel better," she grumbled, finally stopping her struggling. She let out an angry breath, seeming to calm down a little bit.

"I-I'm feeling some tension in the room. Maybe I should just…" The Ice King backed towards the edge of the balcony.

"You stay right there. Marceline, wake up Finn and Jake and have them meet me in the lab. And you!" She pulled the Ice King to follow her. "You better hope it's not too late."

* * *

The five of them met in Bonnie's lab. Marceline led the still groggy forms of Finn and Jake to a corner where Bonnie was working on hooking up a large machine. A central chamber filled with bubbling pink liquid held the Ice King's crown, and wires ran off it to another machine with various headsets dangling from the ceiling. She had a vague memory of seeing this before, but as with most of her recollections, the parts where Bonnie would have been were torn out. Ice King meanwhile was sitting on a stool with his hands on his knees, looking contrite.

"Ice King is responsible," Bonnie said to Finn and Jake as she continued to boot up the machine.

"Wha? Ice King couldn't responsible his way out of a paper bag," Jake mumbled with his eyes still half closed.

"Well he did this time."

"I'm having a hard time following," said Finn. "Why did he do this?"

"Absolutely no reason. It just happened."

"Oh. Well that's Ooo for you." The two of them seemed to accept this easily.

"Wait, isn't it strange though?" The more Marceline thought of it, the more it didn't seem to add up. "I mean, the crown has never worked on anyone else. It's bound to Simon, right? And it doesn't just steal you mind all at once. It takes…" She thought back to Simon's slow decline. "It takes time."

"I know. I've been thinking of that too." Bonnie plugged in another cord, and the machine hummed to life. "But the crown was corrupted to some degree by Betty, and there's a lot we don't know about it. Anything's possible. We won't know until we head inside."

"Okay. But we can all agree then that Simon's not responsible, right? It was like a freak accident." Regardless of what happened to her, she didn't want her friends blaming Simon for it.

Bonnie looked at Simon like she swallowed something sour, but then she grudgingly admitted, "Fine. It wasn't his fault…entirely." That seemed as good as she was going to get. "Now let's hurry up and get in there."

She handed a headset to everyone except Ice King and then took one for herself.

"Normally this is perfectly safe, but if the crown is acting strangely, who knows what could happen," Bonnie explained as they settled the goggles over their eyes.

"Wait, what does that mean?" she asked quickly.

"It's just, there could be a certain degree of feedback caused by the energy in the crown. Rather than being a standard VR experience, things could be slightly more…real."

"No, no. Hold on. Then just send me. I'm not putting you guys in danger." She reached over to Jake's headset to pull it off, but he pulled it back on.

"Pssh! We risk our lives every week for way less important stuff than this," he said.

"Yeah, and what kind of heroes would we be to leave our friend in trouble?" Finn added.

Bonnie just stared at her. "You can't even think I'm not doing this."

"Guys…" She smiled at each one of them. "Okay, but maybe let me go in first just to check, and then…"

 _Program initiating in 3…2…_

A mechanical voice called out a countdown.

"Oops." The four of them turned towards the Ice King who had leaned against a large red button.

… _1…Starting…_

The crown erupted with power. Gold and dark purple streaks of lightning coursed out of the chamber and along the wires. Before she could react, the electricity reached their headsets, and Marceline's senses were obliterated in a blast of light and sound. She stumbled to her knees, and when the ringing in her ears stopped and her vision cleared, she saw a different landscape spread out before her.

"Oh. Damn."


End file.
